Believe
by LetItFlow0992
Summary: When Gwen is told Ben has a new girlfriend some time after a bad breakup with Julie, she is at first overjoyed but then becomes more than shocked as to who it is and refuses to accept that the relationship is real. Set one year after the finale of Ultimate Alien.
1. A Whole New Romance

**A story about my top favourite Ben 10 pairing. Enjoy.**

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Chapter 1- A Whole New Romance

"Whoa! Ben, the way we took down that drone. You as Diamondhead throwing crystals infused with my mana. I didn't know we could do that."

Ben smiled blandly at his favourite cousin as they walked up the street towards his house after an entire morning of battling prototype military drones that had gone out of control, but just as quickly as he had brought the smile up, he let it fade from his face. He had to tell her. He had to. He had let the secret go on for long enough.

"Uh, Ben? Earth to Ben. We're here."

He blinked and looked up. Sure enough, he and Gwen were standing out the front of his house. Gwen was staring at him curiously, her left eyebrow raised high above the other. Ben blushed, grinning apologetically. Gwen's eyebrow lowered back to its normal height.

"Okay, what's up? I haven't seen you look happy all day. Couldn't even get one of your goofy smiles at Mr. Smoothies."

"Yeah," Ben answered, his face turning serious again. "That's because I said I would do something today, and I even meant it as a promise."

"A promise?"

"Yep."

"Okay, so what is this thing you're supposed to do?"

"To tell you something."

"Well, hurry up and tell me. Remember, I'm spending the afternoon with Kevin."

 _You mean watching him tuning up a car at his garage_ , Ben thought but held it back from going to his mouth and saying it aloud. Instead he focused on what he had to say. It was now or never.

"I didn't want to tell you until I knew it was serious."

Gwen nodded, indicating for him to keep going.

"Well, uh, I'm kind of dating someone."

As he had expected, the expression on her face changed to one of joy. Gwen cheered and threw her arms around him, drawing him into a hug.

"You've got a girlfriend! That's great," she exclaimed. "Is it anyone I know? Is it Julie?"

"No."

"Kai?"

"No."

"Then tell me."

Ben summoned up the courage he needed. "It's Hope."

"Hope?" Gwen replied in confusion. "I don't know anyone named Hope, except-

Ben didn't offer her denial and waited. He felt Gwen freeze and watched as she moved away from him. Her eyes looked into his in a scrutinising way. Memories of their summer trip from years ago came unbidden into his mind, reminding him that this was her waiting for his hidden but predictable punch line to a really bad joke. But it was no joke, and he had to let her know that.

"Charmcaster, Gwen. I'm dating Charmcaster."

Gwen eyed him with more scrutiny as he said it. Then the hardened gaze went away to be replaced by rising fury.

"You're what?" she exploded.

Ben cringed, closing his eyes tightly. There was the reaction he had been afraid of, the one he just knew from the beginning that she would make. But he strove on. The telling was done. Now it was time for the real trouble of convincing her that he knew what he was doing. He reopened his eyes and looked into her infuriated emerald ones.

"Gwen, look-

"Benjamin Kirby Tennyson," she growled through gritted teeth. "You are going to see her and you are going to break up with her. Right. Now."

"No, Gwen."

Both of her eyebrows rose. "Ben! Of all the girls, Charmcaster!"

"Her name is Hope," he replied with steady conviction.

"I don't care. You're going to break up with her."

"No, I'm not. I love her."

Gwen stiffened, and then clapped her hands over her ears. "I didn't hear that," she stated flatly.

Ben sighed exasperatedly, admitting to himself that he should have remembered that Gwen was almost always unreasonable to talk to whenever she got really angry with him. Uninterested in prolonging the evolving argument into a two-way tirade like all the arguments they had when they were ten had ended up being, he turned away and headed along the path to the front door. Gwen flinched and put her hands down in shock.

"Ben?"

He kept walking away from her, pretending he didn't hear her mostly unspoken plea.

"Ben, why?"

He stopped and turned back around, showing her the most serious stare she had ever seen on his face.

"I. Love. Her. I don't know where the feelings came from, but the last time we encountered her on a mission, something about her just seemed to click with me. Then, about a month ago, I ran into her while she was visiting Hex. She said she was looking for me. Turned out she had those same feelings about me."

He hoped that telling her how he and Charmcaster had fallen for each other would be enough and help ease her anger, but as he could see when he finished explaining, Gwen was still unmoved.

"And you've been going out since then? Behind my back? Did you forget the huge amount of trouble she gave us?"

Ben crossed his arms. "Forgetting about Kevin, are we?"

"He changed."

"So has she."

Gwen huffed in disbelief. Charmcaster turning over a new leaf? That wasn't likely. After all, she herself had given the rival sorceress plenty of chances to do so, and yet Ben only had to give her one?

"I refuse to believe that, Ben."

"Believe what you like, Gwen. She and I knew this was going to be tough."

"Tough!" Gwen shot up. "Tough? I'll make you go through hell if it makes you come to your senses."

Ben glared hard at her. Enough was enough. "Try as hard as you want. It'll just prove to you how strongly we feel about each other when it doesn't work."

He turned away again, uncrossing his arms and continuing on his way to the door until he reached it, opened and pushed it inwards, and went inside closing it behind him.

Gwen watched him go, defiance written all over her brow. She was silent until after he had closed the door.

"Oh, it'll work, Ben. It'll work," she whispered darkly.

 **:*:**

Ben angrily shut the door behind him with a booming slam.

"Ben!" he heard his mother yell from the kitchen. "What have I told you about slamming doors!"

"Sorry, mom. Gwen and I had a bad argument."

Sandra Tennyson popped her head around the corner. Whatever anger she had felt the door slam had obviously vaporised as she was looking at him in concern.

"About Hope?" she asked.

Ben nodded.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure she'll come around."

"She'd better."

Smiling encouragingly at him, Sandra turned to go back into the kitchen but then faced her son again.

"Oh, by the way, Hope is waiting for you upstairs."

The look on Ben's face brightened. He went for the stairs.

"Hey!" his mother called after him. "No running in the- oh, never mind."

She stepped back inside the kitchen to finish cleaning up the breakfast dishes and began thinking of making lunch preparations. She made a note to ask Hope whether she would stay for it when the phone rang. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Aunt Sandra."

 _Here we go_ , Sandra thought with a sigh.

"Hello Gwen. I think I know-

"Please listen. Ben is dating a girl who I know is dangerous."

"Gwen, honey. I've met Hope and she seems such a wonderful girl, despite her eccentricities."

"I'm sorry, but do you know what she's done in the past?"

"She and Ben have told me and Uncle Carl everything," Sandra replied, her voice growing stern. "I'll admit I was a bit worried knowing that, but she seems to have gone past that stage of her life entirely."

"Not you too, Aunt Sandra," Gwen groaned. "People like her don't change."

"Well, I think she has, Gwendolyn, and for Ben's sake, please get used to it. I don't want him to go through another bad breakup like he did with Julie. She makes him happy."

A long droning beep gave her her answer. Realising her teenage niece had abruptly hung up on her, she looked at the phone in annoyance.

"Nice talking with you, Gwen."

She raised her free hand up to the keypad and dialled in a set of numbers. She put the receiver back to her ear and waited for the person she was calling to pick up, speaking as soon as she heard his voice.

"Max, it's Sandra. I think you'd better come home. We've got a serious problem, and I'm certain it's going to get worse."

 **:*:**

Opening the door to his bedroom, Ben's eyes immediately fell on the silver haired girl sitting on his bed reading a copy of War and Peace. The girl looked up at him with her violet eyes and smiled warmly.

"Ben."

"Hey," he said, leaving the door open as he stepped in. "What are you doing here?"

Hope chuckled and put the book down on the bed. She stood up, closed the distance between them and nimbly cast her arms around him. The palms of her hands gently met the back of his neck. Ben sensed his body heat rising under the sensation of her cool comfortable touch.

"Do I need an excuse to visit my boyfriend?" she whispered in his ear.

He let his hand running through her long hair be his answer. The nerves in the skin of her back felt the presence of his fingertips near them and wanted them to come closer.

"No, I like it when you visit. You're always so busy."

"So are you, with all your planet saving."

"Good point," Ben said in a small sigh.

Leaning her head back, Hope gazed knowingly into his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I did what I said I was gonna do. I told Gwen about us."

"She didn't take it too well?"

"No."

"What exactly did she say?"

Ben shrugged his shoulders. "She said she would 'make me go through hell if it helps me come to my senses' if I stayed with you. Oh yeah, and she ordered me to break up with you."

Hope's eyes tensed in alarm. "And, are you?"

"Never," he replied, shaking his head. "Unless you want me to?"

The fear going away, Hope smiled at him . "Never."

They leaned in closer, cementing their love once more with a strong kiss. The both of them felt the hidden and restrained passion flow between their lips wanting to become something more powerful, but they knew in their minds that this was as far as they could take it for now. At seventeen, Ben was still a minor while Hope, being five years older than him, was recognised as a fully grown adult.. And also, they had promised his parents who had readily given the relationship their blessing that they would not take things to a certain point until Ben was at least of age.

Their lips pulled slowly and regretfully away. A pair of violet eyes stared wistfully into a pair of green ones. The green eyes returned the same feeling.

"So what do you want to do?" Ben asked.

"Just…stand right here and enjoy this," Hope answered, lifting one hand from behind his neck, sliding it across his cheek to cup his lower jawline in her palm.

"Good enough."

 **:*:**

"I just don't see what the problem is."

"Weren't you listening, Kevin? My cousin, your best friend, is dating Charmcaster!"

Kevin moved the dolly to out from underneath the car he was working on to look up at his red-headed girlfriend of two years.

"So?"

"So?" Gwen growled furiously. "What? Remember how much trouble she's caused us?"

Kevin's black eyes turned hard. "I remember all the trouble I gave you and Ben when we were kids."

"That was different."

"No it's not. I was to Ben what Charmcaster is to you. A rival that was intent on beating you at every turn."

"She still is," Gwen argued.

"Not if she's in love with Ben."

"She's not! She's probably using him to get to me."

"And what if she isn't?" Kevin retorted. "What if she really does love him?"

Gwen's mouth fell open, horrified that the possibility of asking such a question had entered her boyfriend's mind. Oblivious to her reaction, Kevin went on.

"Look, Ben accepted me because he gave me a chance, one in a long line of chances that he had given me. I think all you have to do is give Charmcaster one more chance to prove her feelings about Ben."

Unable to come up with anything to say, Gwen groaned frustratingly.

"Fine! We'll see how it plays out."

"Okay," Kevin agreed.

He moved back under the car to continue his work, leaving Gwen to her thoughts.

 _See how it plays out_ , she repeated sarcastically in her mind. _Yeah, right. Like I'm going to see Ben get his heart broken a second time when she shows her true colours. I've got a few calls to make_.

Quietly she withdrew from the garage and found herself a secluded spot on the block. She fished out her mobile phone from her purse and began to set her plans into motion.

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 **Okay, I need to know whether this story seems to be good or bad to you in case it is worth pursuing further. To those of you that think it is good, don't worry, I have the entire story all planned out.**

 **Please review.**


	2. Hope's Heart

**Whoa. I didn't expect such a positive response to this story. To those of you who have reviewed, favourited and followed, thank you so much. I honestly was afraid that it wouldn't do well. Enjoy the new chapter.**

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Chapter 2- Hope's Heart

Ben and Hope had moved from their embrace standing up to sitting down on his bed, where they parted from each other and began swapping stories of what they had been up to since the last time they had been together. Ben recounted days upon days of evil alien attacks while Hope told him of the trials of ruling an entire dimension. When the amount of things to tell ran dry, the both of them turned silent. Though neither of them had said it yet, their greatest worry and fear was that something bad could happen to the other. Ben was afraid that her nemesis Adwaita would make another attempt to overthrow her and take back control of Ledgerdomain; Hope was concerned that one day one of his countless foes would get the best of him.

Hope broke the quiet herself through hugging Ben. Ben startled, still caught up in his private fears, but soon recognised and welcomed the feeling of her. He curved his arms in around her form and kissed her lightly and gently on the cheek, wishing again that their lives could be easy for once. On more times than he could count, when he realised he had fallen for her and even when they started to date, he imagined a life with her; a life with no alien fights, no alternate dimensions, but just of a pair of normal young people being in love. Although he had imagined scenarios like this when he was with Julie or when he was crushing on Kai, they now seemed to have been odd fantasies, because when Hope had entered them in their places, the images became more realistic. Instead of walking through a field of flowers arm-in-arm or stealing secret moments without anyone else watching, there were pictures of him and her having a date at a fancy restaurant, supporting each other through times of upheaval, yelling at the tops of their voices during an argument and making up for the things they said later, marrying and sharing the management of a house, and taking on the responsibilities of being parents. Never before had he dreamt of such things with any girl, but yet here he was, thinking of having a future with a former enemy who was now his girlfriend. Once more, Ben wondered if Gwen had any similar visions whenever he had pictured herself with Kevin. He remembered suddenly with a pang of regret the look on Gwen's face when she reacted to him telling her that he was dating her archrival.

"Ben?"

"Hm," he answered her.

"I know this is going to sound weird because we've only been dating for a month, but I've really fallen for you."

Ben smiled. "Just think of the things about me that turn you off a bit," he teased playfully. "That'll bring you back to reality."

Hope giggled into his shoulder; her chin was touching the patch of soft skin between his neck and the joint of bone. "You mean like your addiction to chilli fries and your unnecessary need to belch after slurping down a drink?"

"Hey!" Ben retorted, flinching back with the feeling that he had just been insulted.

Hope giggled again, covering the smile that had come to her lips with her left hand, until she stopped laughing and brought her hand back down to speak again.

"Honestly, it doesn't bother me as much as it used to."

"Really?" Ben asked, blinking his eyes once. The insulted stare on his face shifted into one of curiosity.

Hope gazed back at him in a serious way. "Ben, I love you and I want to be with you. To do that, I have to take in the things about you that I find bad as well as the things that are good."

Ben blinked again. The curiosity fell away from him as his chest was warming up with the increased pace his heart was beating at. The small 'o' his mouth was forming broadened into a grin. He edged closer to her. She let him come. His arms weaved back in around her. Her hands gripped softly around his shoulders. He pushed inward for the kiss.

"Ben!"

Ben and Hope stopped cold. The intense emotions that were just waiting to emerge out from them withdrew back beyond the barriers that held them in sway. Hope frowned. Ben groaned.

"Yes, mom!" he called back, answering his mother's shout.

"Could you come down here for a minute? There's something I need you to do!"

Ben groaned a second time. Hope smiled at him and lifted her right hand up to caress his cheek.

"It's okay. I'll still be here."

Ben smiled back at her. "Promise?" he asked.

"Unless there happens to be an alien attack here or there's some crisis going on back home, yes."

"Don't joke," Ben replied as he gave her a quick kiss. "It could cause that to happen."

Pulling away from the bed, he strode over to the door and turned to go into the hallway, heading for the stairs. Hope watched him leave, smiling until he was out of earshot, and then let her lips fall into a sad line.

"It's already too late for one of those, Ben," she whispered mainly to herself as her mind swung back onto the real reason she had come to see him.

Adwaita had returned to Ledgerdomain, seeking again to take the throne, only this time he had come in force with an entire army at his behest. She, of course, had fought back against him and succeeded, but the new war was being waged on too many fronts for even her to handle. The enemy sorcerer kept on pushing and pushing to the point that all of her kingdom was now under siege. But for now though, the conflict was at a standstill after her recent near-fatal duel with Adwaita. She had beaten him, even wounded him, but it wasn't enough to make him want to retreat or ultimately give up. Instead he was recovering back at his camp, waiting to regain his strength for the next battle.

One that Hope did not think she would survive. Because she wouldn't, she thought, reminding herself of what she had learned from the duel. Adwaita had switched priorities. Gaining rule of Ledgerdomain had become his secondary objective. His primary one in this new attempt of his was to kill her.

Ever since knowing that, she had been scared. Usually with her enemy's priorities, her capture or death was the one that came in second and gaining the throne that was first, but now it was the other way around, and when he declared he wanted her dead, she sensed he meant it. But why, she pondered on her often-asked question, what could possibly have changed?

She gave herself the same answer she had given before. It didn't matter. All that did was what she had to do now. She couldn't involve Ben and his team; the war was too far gone in Adwaita's favour for all them to get out of it alive, let alone succeed in battle. So she had to do the thing that was best, or so she had believed.

Face the threat alone and break up with Ben in case Adwaita won.

But that was not what she wanted to do anymore, not after remembering how badly he had felt after Julie broke up with him, how happy she made him, and the fact that she was so in love with him that she couldn't bear to break his heart.

 _But I'm going to break his heart anyway_ , she harshly told herself. _Because if Adwaita does kill me, he'll be so hurt_.

Growling quietly in frustration about her dilemma, Hope stood up from the bed and turned towards Ben's small desk. Beside the television set were four photo frames. She moved in for a closer look. All of the pictures encased in them featured Ben with at least one other person. The first on the left had him with Gwen outside Mr. Smoothies; Ben had one arm slung around Gwen's shoulders and a smoothie cup in his other hand while his cousin was making an amusing peace symbol with a friendly smirk. The second had Ben, Kevin and Gwen all on a roller coaster ride at a theme park; Ben and Kevin were both whooping for joy, Gwen was shrieking in terror. The third was a family photo of Ben and his parents outside the front of their house. The last one was of Ben and his grandpa Max standing beside the old RV. Smiling at how happy Ben looked to be in each one, Hope turned her eyes back to the first one, picking it up in her hand and examined it further. With her keen eyes, she saw the inexplicable bond between her boyfriend and her old rival, something she reminded herself that she had been blind to in the times she had confronted them before as their enemy. Back then, she had often wondered why they were so difficult for her and her uncle to defeat, but in recent months she had come to see why. The two cousins were a perfect team; both had completely different personalities and lifestyles and could very easily get on each other's nerves, but they shared many similarities like going out of their way to care for their loved ones, being the voice of reason, support and encouragement to the other, and were driven by a passionate desire to keep the innocent safe from harm. The both of them knew each other so well that they could act in sync on anything with little effort and to be there if the other one of them fell.

 _Sometimes they act and seem more like they're siblings than cousins_ , she noted wryly, but the smile the thought gave her wore away from her face as she recalled Ben's description about the way Gwen had behaved towards the news about the two of them dating. She was hoping that Gwen would in fact take it well so she could be a source of comfort for Ben if things did not work out at Ledgerdomain, but now it appeared that Gwen was likely not to care at all.

Hope put the picture down back in its place and stepped over to the window. She looked out across the distance to where Gwen's house was located and sighed.

"Gwen," she spoke quietly. "If things do turn out okay, or they don't, please, please accept that Ben and I love each other. I've…never felt so different before in my life ever since I realised I have feelings for him."

Her eyes tensed as her plea went unheard and eventually closed, mentally probing as to why there had been no answer. She found Gwen's father in the living room of the house and her mother in the kitchen, but there was no indication of Gwen being at home.

 _Unless she's blocking me_.

"Hope?"

Startled, she turned around to face Ben. "Oh, you're back," she exhaled, quickly calming down.

"Yeah, what made you think I wouldn't be?"

Hope shook her head in amusement. "Nothing," she answered, taking a step closer to him. "I tried to speak to Gwen telepathically."

The smile that was on Ben's face when it hit him he had taken her by surprise jerked and curved down into a thin line.

"Didn't go so well?"

"No. Either she's not at home or she's blocking me."

"Or she's with Kevin, which could be anywhere really."

"True," Hope nodded, her eyes moving sadly down to the floor.

Ben moved to her and gave her a soft hug. "Hey. Don't be so hard on yourself, and don't let Gwen make you feel guilty. It's what she usually does to make people see things her way."

"But, the two of you have always been so close. I don't want to get inbetween that."

"You're not getting in the way of anything," Ben argued. "Gwen will understand. We just need to give her time to settle on it."

"You think so?"

Ben hesitated for a moment, replaying the words Gwen had told him and the threat she had made, and recalled the ferocity and determination with which she had said them.

" _I'll make you go through hell if it makes you come to your senses."_

"I'd like to, but I don't really know," he answered her finally. "Let's just wait and see what happens."

Hope raised her head back up and looked into his eyes. In them, she found a sense of uncertainty but nevertheless there was a firm belief that it would turn out all right. She smiled warmly in reply.

"Okay," she said. "And if that doesn't work, we'll prove it to her another way."

Ben grinned happily, winking one eye. "Exactly."

The two shared another kiss, cementing their agreement, before Ben relayed his mother's invitation for Hope to join them for lunch. Hope accepted.

 **:*:**

Lunch with Ben and his mother was, to put it in a single word, delightful. Over the meal of ham, egg and cheese rolls with a choice of a bottle of soda as a drink, Sandra chose to speak of the times when Ben was a baby and was doing something silly or mischievous. Hope had listened attentively, taking various moments to glance out of the corners of her eyes and smiled as Ben was going brick red in the face and pretending to put all his focus on eating. She had giggled only once; it was enough to cause him to notice she was sneaking looks at him and he turned away out of embarrassment. Hope and Sandra both raised an eyebrow, then Sandra winked slyly at her. Hope winked back, signalling she had got the gist. She revolved around in her chair, angled her head carefully in, and applied her lips gently to Ben's cheek. Ben blinked as he felt them touch and push inwards and knew that as the kiss lingered, the redness of his skin was flushing away to be replaced by its normal tone. Then Hope pulled away, and he turned back to her and his mother in the desire of wanting more. Hope saw the pleading in his eyes and answered, this time with her lips connecting to his. Just out of their sight, Sandra was smiling at them in a glad way.

Hope left soon afterwards, heading through town towards her uncle's house. Throughout the walk, her mind often fell back on her leaving the Tennyson home. Saying goodbye had been the worst thing. At the door, she had looked at Ben and Sandra's cheerful faces and was tempted to smile as widely as they were smiling, but all she could manage was a small one. The thought that she should at least tell Sandra the truth of what was going on back home had briefly entered her mind, but she pushed it away, knowing her boyfriend's mother would be as equally heartbroken as he would if the worst occurred. So she went out through the door with the small smile still on her face and waved goodbye. Regret was spilling from her heart as visions came to her imagination of what would happen if she never came back. Ben sitting down on his bed, endless tears streaming from behind clenched eyes. Sandra at the dining table, questioning why she could have been so thoughtless. Gwen nastily sneering at them both, saying "I told you." Ben being so distracted in a battle with Vilgax that he ended up being - - -

 _No!_ , she snapped at herself, cancelling out the image before it had a chance to conclude. _I will come back_.

 _I will come back to him_.

 **:*:**

Hex had sensed his niece's approach as well as her inner turmoil and was waiting at the front door of his home, holding it open for her. As she came within view of the house, she looked up, saw them there, and sighed. Hex's normally hard eyes softened.

"Did you tell him?" he asked as she reached him.

Hope shook her head quietly, her eyes trembling with water.

"Then, did you at least ask him to help?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head again. Hex groaned, placing his hand over his brow in frustration.

"Silly girl," he grumbled. "Come in and tell me everything."

Hope walked in past him. Hex shut the door and followed her as she went into his study. There, she turned to face him. He halted and stood ready to hear it.

"I couldn't," she sobbed. "I couldn't break up with him or tell him the truth. Breaking up with him would shatter him. And if I told him the truth, he would want to help me."

"Of course he would," Hex replied sternly. "The boy loves you."

"I know, but if he and the others come with me, they'll more than likely get killed. It's gotten so dangerous back home."

"As I warned you it would," Hex stated flatly.

Hope ignored his remark and went on. "I don't want to hurt Ben, but I have to go back."

"No, you don't. Adwaita may be a tyrant but he is content with just having Ledgerdomain."

"How could you say that?" Hope exclaimed. "He killed my father and my mother, your brother and sister-in-law!"

"I know that!" Hex shouted, suddenly raising his voice. "That's precisely why I've always been against you going back there. Adwaita took everything from me but you. Don't you understand? You're all I have left, and you're risking yourself on this worthless endeavour."

"It's not worthless, uncle. Under my rule, our people are safe and happy."

"Until Adwaita comes back again to take it all from you, like he is now."

Silence echoed around the room after Hex made his statement. Hope paused on making a comeback reply as she knew that there was some truth in his words. Every time she had defeated Adwaita, even with the added power of the Alpha Rune at her command or even with help, she was never strong enough to destroy him. Because of that, he was free to keep on coming back and endanger her people. It was the same thing over and over again since she had first regained her father's throne. Adwaita returning and placing everything she was rebuilding under threat; she fights back and wins; Adwaita retreats and regathers his strength and power, and comes at her again with another attack.

Until now, a small voice reminded her of her recent battle. Now he is fully determined in killing you.

Hope shook her head a third time, throwing away all the thoughts that were plaguing her mind.

"I… I can't give up."

"Yes you can," Hex spoke again, stepping close to her and placed his free hand on her shoulder. "It is difficult, I know, but he will never give up. If one of you doesn't, it will end up destroying either one or the both of you, or much worse than that, destroy everything and everyone around you."

Hope turned her tearful gaze up into his eyes. Hex smiled fondly as he recognised the emotional defiance in her spirit.

"If you would realise just how much you're like your father. He too valued the peace that he upheld, that Adwaita came to destroy, and he wouldn't let go of it, even at the end. Your mother and I were different though; we could see that Adwaita was prevailing, just like he seems to be now. She begged him, begged of him to flee, but you and I both know the course he chose to take."

His black-and-yellow eyes started to glimmer with the wet sadness of tears as the memory of that dark day came back to haunt him, the day that two of the most precious people in his life had been taken from him.

"I don't want you to make the same sacrifice. Please, just stay here; if not for me, then for Ben."

Hope closed her eyes, clamping the lids shut on droplets of tearwater which then cascaded down her cheeks. In heart and in mind, she began to struggle. The responsibility of caring Ledgerdomain and its people met head-on with her growing guilt about how Ben would react to whatever form the future could take. The logic of her mind surrendered quickly to a choice, one that her heart instinctively disagreed on and redoubled its efforts. But somewhere deep within all that emotion was a great urge to listen to and follow her mind. Eventually, she did. Hope withdrew from her uncle.

"No. I do want to stay, you have no idea how much. But I can't just leave them to him."

A low sigh issued out from Hex's lips. The tears in his eyes locked back behind them as he bowed his head in defeat. His outstretched arm fell silently to his side.

"Too much of your father, not enough of your mother," he muttered.

"Uncle Hex, that's not - - -

He held up his hand to silence her and offered her a dim smile. "When did you become such a selfless hero?"

"When did you become so sentimental?" she joked back.

Hex chuckled, bringing his arm down again. "Well, I expect that if we can change once, we can change again, hopefully for the better."

Hope nodded, agreeing with him, but the consequences that her choice had the potential of creating troubled her again.

"If…if anything happens - - -

"I will make sure to tell Ben everything and apologise on your behalf, as long as you ensure that you do everything you can to keep yourself alive so that I do not have to."

"Believe me, uncle," Hope spoke with certainty. "I will come back."

She turned away from him to summon the portal to get to Ledgerdomain. The gateway appeared out of thin air and opened, revealing her throne room at the other end. Hope glanced back again to share an unspoken goodbye with her uncle. Hex replied with a wistful smile and a curt nod. She returned both and walked into the tunnel. The gateway closed behind her, vanishing away before Hex's eyes. The smile the sorcerer had descended into a worried frown. Again, he bowed his head and uttered the prayer he spoke every time Hope had gone back to their ancestral home.

"Bezel, keep her safe."

* * *

 **Next up, we return to Gwen as she begins to put her plot of 'making Ben see sense' into motion.**


	3. Attack of the Plant Monster

**Sorry this took so long, everyone. This chapter had to be written and rewritten a total of four times; usually I get a fanfic chapter done on the first or second try. Oh well, first time for everything. Here's Chapter 3.**

* * *

Chapter 3- Attack of the Plant Monster

The first sign of an imminent alien attack was the sighting of an object flying down through the sky or when there was an explosion or any kind of chaotic event at a top secret research facility. At least, that was how Ben remembered it. This time though the only indication anyone in Bellwood got that there was a monster in the area was the loud rumbling caused it by it lumbering through the city streets. The rumbling was what had woken Ben up, and that had angered him. There were many various things that could annoy Ben Tennyson in the morning, all of which involved him being rudely awakened.

The alarm clock ringing so loud that it was penetrating to the inside of his head.

Being reminded by his mom on a weekday that school would be starting in a couple of hours.

A before-dawn phone call from either Kevin or Gwen that usually wound up being about something that was not totally important.

But it was not until this very morning that Ben was cheesed off about a monster attack, something he regularly greeted with wild anticipation, but this monster had done something so irritating that Ben was not yet ready to forgive.

It had interrupted his dream.

The dream had begun so well. It was close to Christmastime; the obligatory holiday decorations were hung up in Bellwood High's corridors and classrooms. Ben was enduring another horrible English lesson until it was announced over the school's public address system that due to the snowfall outside, school was cancelled for the rest of the day. Cheering with childish glee, Ben had run out of the room, along the corridors and out of the school building, heading towards home and planning to spend the wonderful day hanging out with Kevin and Gwen. It had turned a little nightmarish from there when he nearly ran into Gwen in an empty street and she, without warning, ambushed him. Ben avoided her flurry of attacks by leaping backward and he gaped surprisingly at her; and then he remembered about her promise to him of making him see sense about his relationship with Hope. He attempted to retaliate by using the Omnitrix to transform himself into Big Chill, but she flung one of her mana lassos at him, which looped around and restrained his right arm. Gwen twisted it, pulling his hand away from the watch.

"Break up with her," she threatened.

Knowing exactly who 'her' was, Ben met Gwen's demand with a defiant glare. "No."

Gwen scowled. "Then let's see if she wants you when you have no Omnitrix powers to offer her."

"It's not like that!"

She narrowed her eyes at his outburst. "Prove it," she said in a dangerous tone.

Almost at her word, a whip of blue energy lashed from out of nowhere, cracking down with a snap onto Gwen's conduit of mana. The line from her hand to Ben's arm spattered, fizzling into pink sparks and then into nothing. Ben and Gwen both turned to the figure neither of them had seen standing across the road. Hope jumped, levitating herself into the air, and floated over the street to land on the footpath between them. With a fierce temper burning in her eyes, she rounded on Gwen.

"If you threaten him like that again," she spoke harshly. "I will ensure that you won't ever try it another time."

Gwen did not listen; instead she glared pure hatred at her archrival. "Release him from the spell, Charmcaster."

"Get it through your head, Gwen. There is no spell. I love Ben."

"And I love her," Ben added in support, coming to stand beside Hope and gently taking her by the hand.

Gwen huffed in denial which, the more she looked at how serious they were, proceeded to change into a ferocious growl. She turned her blazing hate-filled green eyes to Hope and gradually faded away from her and Ben's sight.

Ben soon forgot about the altercation with Gwen as he hung out with Hope instead. As things had turned out, it had been her who had summoned the snowfall to occur in order to spend time with him. He had blushed at that, wondering how in the universe he had been so lucky to have her as a girlfriend. They walked through the city together, watching others enjoying the snow as they went.

They stopped when they arrived at a park near Ben's house to see a group of small kids playing in a snowball fight. From this, Hope thought of a sly idea. She moved discreetly behind Ben and magicked up a clump of snow on the ground to rise and form into a snowball. She giggled silently as it went higher and higher until it was above Ben's head and she pushed it an inch forward.

Then she let it fall.

Ben yelped in surprise as it landed with a wet splat on top of his hair. Immediately realising from the droplets of snow falling over his face what Hope had done, Ben turned to her with a wide grin. He put his hand to the Omnitrix and twisted the mechanism around until he had got it to the alien he wanted.

Arctiguana.

The Omnitrix plunger shot up. He slammed his hand down on it. In a green flash, he had turned into an alien. The problem was, like so many other times when he had used the Omnitrix in reality, it wasn't the alien he had in mind.

"Fourarms!" he exclaimed in the grunting tone of the tall red six-limbed alien. "Oh well, guess I can make do with the snow around here."

Hope smirked back at him and summoned multiple amounts to snowballs into the air in reply. Fourarms' face fell.

"Uh-oh."

By the time Hope was finished with her barrage, Fourarms was under a white heap of snow so large that it looked like a small hill could be chiselled out of it. Fourarms spat out a chunk of the soft frozen water, having nearly swallowed one of her throws, and shivered. He had moved to heave himself out of the mound when he heard the awful sound of the Omnitrix timing out.

Before Hope's eyes, and the eyes of the children who had halted their own game to watch Fourarms getting mercilessly pelted, the big red alien reverted back into Ben. Ben blinked in horror as he now felt the cold from the snow flooding through him and the moisture drenching his jacket and shirt, but that wasn't the worst thing about being trapped under the snow. What was the worst thing was, now that he was back to normal, he didn't have the strength to pull himself out of the snow.

"Uh," he glanced at his girlfriend. "Could you please get me out from under here?"

Hope raised an eyebrow in mischievous triumph. She waved her hand. The snow on top of Ben vanished. Ben sat back up, his hands flying to his arms and rubbing them vigorously to get some warmth back into them. Hope sat down next to him and placed her hand on his chest, quietly muttering an incantation. A slow soothing heat fluttered from her palm into his skin. The temperature of his body began to climb. Ben looked at Hope. She looked back at him. The two of them edged closer for the kiss.

 **:*:**

Which was when the monster out in the city had interrupted the dream, bringing it to an abrupt conclusion.

Ignoring the disappointment he was feeling, Ben jumped out of his bed and pulled his pyjamas off of him, grumbling under his breath as he reached for the green jacket and the newly washed black t-shirt and single pair of blue jeans that he had slung over the foot of his bed as part of his preparation routine he had made in case a monster attack ever did happen this early in the morning.

How early was it, he asked. A glimpse towards his alarm clock and a glance through the window told him that it was five forty five and that the sun was only just coming up. As he put on his clothes, he stole another look through the window. His eyes ranged in on the monster. It was incredibly tall, seemingly made from some kind of vegetation given its dull green colour, and it was heading for the central business district.

"You have no idea what you just wrecked," he stated bluntly.

He moved away from the window to put on a fresh pair of socks and his favourite sneakers, and he started to plan on what alien he was going to use.

 **:*:**

The battle could not have been going any more worse. Sure he and the others had reached the plant monster in time before it could do any serious damage, but that was not what was bothering Ben. It was the synergy of the team that had him worried, particularly the synergy between him and Gwen. Throughout the fight, there had been various occasions where Gwen did not respond to his efforts at teamwork like she usually did, or was not paying attention to him and performing attacks and counters on her own. This led to the issues of the battle going on for a longer period of time than they were used to and the Omnitrix timing out, causing Ben to transform from Heatblast back to himself. Gwen ignored this too, choosing to keep battling on her own front. Kevin reacted differently, calling out to Ben to throw him one of Heatblast's fiery rock attacks before the transformation was completed. Realising what he had in mind, Ben tossed a rock towards him just as the green indicator on the Omnitrix started turning red. Kevin absorbed the element and natural ability of the rock, changing his body into brick-red stone with bright yellow fire framing around his form. He opened his eyes, revealing that his normally black irises and pupils had been replaced with blazing sunlike flames. Kevin turned to Ben.

"Stay out of this until the watch recharges," he said.

Ben nodded to him. Kevin returned it and leaped farther into combat with the monster. As he did, Ben saw the very thing that he had noticed to be missing in the struggle. The minute Kevin sprang in to attack, Gwen acted instinctively and blocked the monster's melee strikes from slashing at him with smaller versions of her mana shield. Something inside Ben bristled with anger. Why wasn't she doing that for him when he had been the one busy dodging the creature's thorn-tipped tendrils? Why was she ignoring him like this?

The bristling stopped. Her behaviour right there and then suddenly appeared to be very similar to how she had seemed in his dream some hours ago. He had the answer. She was still furious with him for dating Hope without her knowledge, which also obviously meant that she still believed Hope had him under some kind of spell or was in the process of planning something devious and manipulative for him. Ben grinded his teeth together. Three days, he thought, three days since he had told her and she was still not letting up. He was going to have a serious talk with her once the fight was over.

As if it was agreeing with him that the battle should end, Ben's ears picked up the click-and-beep of the Omnitrix that signalled it was ready for use again. He glanced down at the watch and began revolving through the selection of aliens.

"Okay," he mused aloud as he searched. "Without Gwen covering me, Heatblast doesn't do too well. So, let's see how Swampfire fares."

He set the mechanism to lock onto the image of Swampfire, raised his hand up, and swung it down palmfirst onto the watch. The Omnitrix replied as its plunger slid back into its socket. A flash of green surrounded Ben's body. The molecules within his DNA received a charge of plant matter and sparks of flame. His blood cells pounded, forcefully mutating into the cells belonging to the species his blood was adapting to. His skin turned leaf green, except for the surface of his face which became as black as tar. His hair shot up, lengthening to a spiky height and switching in colour from brown to maroon and yellow. The Omnitrix disappeared from his arm; its indicator re-emerged from the centre of his chest.

"Swampfire!" Ben called out the alien's name in its voice as the green flash died down. He threw himself back into the fight, flinging four balls of fire into the monster's back. The plant monster roared loudly in rage and rounded on him. It directed its hand at him. Four of the thorn-tipped tendrils snapped out from its fingertips at lightning speed.

Ben did not have time to dodge.

The tendrils struck, tearing into Swampfire's body from shoulder to hip. Ben sucked in his breath as his nervous system registered the tremendous surge of pain. Hearing and sensing him, Gwen forgot her anger towards him and she turned to help. Her mouth fell open in shock as she found him impaled on the thorns.

"Ben!" she screamed.

Swampfire raised his hand and waved it wildly in the direction of the monster. "Never mind me! Focus!" he shouted at her. "Regenerative abilities, remember?"

He watched her face and eyes turn hard; he knew she had gone back to remembering that she was supposed to be feeling angry with him. Ben frowned and put his attention of the vines that were piercing into his body. With his right hand, he grabbed a hold of one of them and closed his eyes, mentally carving out a neural pathway through the tendrils in order to telepathically communicate with the monster's mind. He found nothing, except a single memory.

In the memory, he saw the monster's creation. Its life had begun as a drum of radioactive liquid, which was being taken to a disposal area for nuclear waste when the truck carrying it swerved roughly at a corner and the drum fell, tumbling out and rolled ceaselessly through the wilderness of the forest outside Bellwood until it came to a splashing halt and sank to the bottom of a pond. The drum had suffered a crack on its journey, a crack that exposed the water to its contents; but instead of resulting in the water's contamination, the liquid turned crystalline, evolving itself into a dense neon-green stone. The stone called for life, to which the underwater plants and pond scum answered, coating the stone with their forms and merging their lifeforces to create a body for it, allowing it to become the towering giant it now was.

Ben searched the creature's mind for what it wanted now that it was a biological life form. He grew horrified as he uncovered that it liked causing pain to others, that it thought its purpose in life was to destroy everything, and that it loved to feed on radiation. No, not just radiation, he surmised, otherwise it would be going to the disposal area. It wanted freshly made radiation.

Then it hit him. It was hunting for a nuclear power plant.

Setting his own mind into grim determination, Ben pulled the tendril he was holding onto free from his shoulder, cutting himself off from the monster's obsessive greed. He groaned from the pain as he tugged on the other three tendrils one at a time and wrenched them out of his body. The punctures they left behind in his flesh healed. Ben looked up at the monster again, this time in pity. He reasoned with himself that there was no choice; with it endeavouring to destroy a nuclear power plant to eat its fill of radioactive energy and in the process threaten the lives of millions of people, the monster had to be killed.

"Gwen!" he called over to his cousin. "Keep it distracted. I have an idea. Kevin, follow me!"

Gwen turned her head back to him and answered with a curt nod. Kevin withdrew from his close proximity to the monster and ran to Ben's side. Ben led him toward an alleyway and together they climbed the fire escape of the building to their left, making their way up to the roof.

"Going to let me in on your plan?" Kevin asked from just below him.

Ben answered him when they reached the rooftop. "It wants to feed on radioactive energy," he explained. "So it's looking for a nuclear plant to break apart."

Kevin's yellow eyes widened in fear. "Why the hell is it doing that?"

"I communicated with it and saw its mind. It was born from a drum of nuclear waste that ended up in a pond. Radiation is what powers it, but a lack of it isn't enough to stop it; it will just make it hungrier. And dangerous."

"What do we do then? Kill it?"

Ben did not speak another word. A temptation to let his mouth drop open sank into Kevin. "Whoa. You're really thinking about it."

"We don't have a choice. It's either that or the loss of millions."

The consequences of the latter scenario put a stop to any arguments Kevin was trying to bring up. "Yeah okay," he said. "How do we do it?"

"It's got only one weakness. When the waste was exposed to the water, it turned into a giant crystal. That crystal is both its heart and stomach. I'm going to burn through its chest. You are going to break the crystal."

"What about the radiation inside of it?"

"There's none of left, because it's hungry."

Kevin glanced at the monster, again considering what he and Ben were planning to do. It wasn't the first time he had killed someone, but it was a first for Ben to decide that killing a living being was their only option. That alone terrified him. Maybe Gwen was right after all, maybe Charmcaster was manipulating Ben, but then he weighed in on what would happen if the monster got what it desired. It would feed, satisfying itself as radiation leaked out for miles, devastating lives; and then sometime later it would get hungry again and move on to seek out a new feast, repeating its actions over and over until the whole world was suffering.

Kevin knew what had to be done. He agreed with Ben's plan, nodding definitively to him. Ben nodded back.

 **:*:**

Ben and Kevin leaped over the rooftops, going further up along Main Street until they got to a vantage point that put them in front of the plant monster. Ben stretched out his arms and released twin vortex-shaped blasts of fire. The blast met the creature at its chest, charring layers and layers of plant life. The monster shrieked in cries of rage, pain and fear. Ben flinched at how human the shriek was sounding, but kept powering his energy into his barrage. Before long, the dim-coloured crystal was revealed to them. Kevin structured a fiery boulder between both of his hands and threw it towards his target. The boulder smashed the crystal apart, leaving only shards of it remaining. The plant monster shrieked again at a higher pitch, crumbling down to the ground in agony as its life left it and as the flaming boulder ignited a blazing inferno from inside its chest, which spread to combine with the flames from Swampfire's attacks and efficiently within minutes left no trace of the plant monster's existence.

The citizens who had fled from the monster when they had seen it coming re-emerged from the buildings they had sought sanctuary in and let out an awesome cheer. Swampfire reformed back into Ben, his heart lightening a little as he recalled that these people were some of the lives he had to save. Kevin smiled as his body was restoring itself to normal. He was obviously feeling the same way.

Gwen, on the other hand, was livid.

As the crowd cleared, continuing their daily lives, she levitated down to the ground and approached Ben furiously. "What was that?" she shouted at him.

Ben and Kevin turned to her, the both of them startled by her sudden rise.

"Gwen," Kevin said. "There was no other way."

"It was going to take down a nuclear power plant just for food," Ben added.

Gwen stared at them as if they had turned stupid. "No other way? We've always found another way!"

"Gwen, millions of people would have been killed," Ben objected.

"Vilgax has killed millions and you've let him live. The Highbreed slaughtered _billions_ and you've let them live. The Forever Knights killed Pierce and a lot of other aliens, and you've let them live."

"I - - -

"Don't say a word!" Gwen coldly spat. "I know what's going on. That girl _has_ been getting into your head."

"Don't start accusing Hope!" Ben snapped in fury. "She and I have never discussed changing any of our battle tactics, and I have never once even said a word on how she should be running Ledgerdomain."

"Because she's manipulating you and you're not realising it," Gwen argued.

"The only manipulation around here, Gwen, is you not letting yourself understand."

"Oh, I understand alright," Gwen replied, lowering her voice to a far more icy tone. "I don't know what she's doing to you or what she has planned for you, but I'm going to find out what it is and break you out of it."

Gwen turned on her heel and flew into the air, never looking back at either him or Kevin.

Ben glanced at his friend. "Aren't you going after her to say something?"

Kevin returned the glance. There was deep worry in his eyes. "No," he answered, shaking his head. "Like you, I've been trying to convince her that what you feel for Charmcaster is real and not some spell or manipulation, but every time I talk about it, she glares at me like I'm an enemy."

Ben blinked in shock. Gwen seeing Kevin as an enemy? That was not like her at all; she had always had faith in her boyfriend, even when he was at his worst. He looked in Gwen's direction again. She was reacting much worse than he had imagined she would. She was becoming a different person, someone unknown and dangerous. What was going on with her?

"Should we be worried?"

Kevin nodded slowly. "I already am. She's getting unhinged about this, Ben."

"You're thinking I shouldn't have told her, aren't you?"

"No. Holding off on it longer would have been way bad. I think you should have told her _sooner_ , cause I don't know what she might do."

Ben's eyes tensed. Neither did he.

 **:*:**

Gwen came in to land out on the front lawn and walked up to the door. It opened for her, revealing a black-haired girl of Asian descent and of her own age on the other side.

"Is she here?"

Julie Yamamoto, Ben's former girlfriend, nodded but sported a frown on her lips as she replied verbally, "Though I don't know why you asked her to come."

"You know why. It's in case it doesn't work out with you. What happened between you and Ben may still be too recent for him."

However Julie took her answer remained a mystery to Gwen as the girl's face did not betray any emotion, but it didn't end up mattering as she pulled the door open further, inviting her in. Gwen stepped inside.

"Your father at home?"

"No. Work," Julie answered, closing the door. "He's been more confident with leaving me alone lately, now that Ben and I have broken up."

"You mean when you dumped him?" Gwen corrected her bluntly.

Julie gave her a dark glare. "I wanted him to like dad."

"Your dad never liked him."

The glare softened. Julie closed her eyes in regret. "I know. I just wanted them to get along."

Gwen turned to her, eyeing her curiously. "Yet you only blamed Ben."

"I know, okay," Julie growled. "It turned out it was for the best anyway. We've broken up and got back together so many times it wasn't funny."

The curiosity in Gwen's eyes increased. "So why did you agree to help me?"

"Because I'm afraid of what it means if you're right. I don't love Ben that way anymore but I still think of him as my friend. If what I did to him hurt him so badly that he would fall under Charmcaster's spell, then it would be my fault."

Gwen found herself smiling. If it was in an ordinary situation, the manner of the smile that was being displayed on her lips would have disturbed her, but right then it did not as what Julie was saying meant to her that she could count on her help.

"Don't say it like that. It's nobody's fault but Charmcaster's in the first place. She would probably try something like this, even if you two hadn't separated. You remember how powerful she is."

Julie nodded glumly. Gwen's smile shifted into one of encouragement.

"Come on," she said, gesturing for Julie to follow her.

Julie did, walking carefully behind Gwen as she headed into the main room of the house. There, Gwen's eyes fell upon a dark-skinned girl also of her and Julie's age who had shoulder length black hair and soulful brown eyes that were looking up into her while their owner was sitting calmly on one of the sofas.

"Gwen," the girl greeted her.

"Kai."

Kai Green, Ben's onetime crush, stood up bearing a sly smirk on her face. "You know I'm surprised that you would ask for my help."

"After the many times I've caught you stalking Ben for the past two years? Believe me, I am too."

"She what?" Julie exclaimed, her eyes sparkling in apoplectic rage.

"Yeah yeah, if you can call it stalking," Kai said dismissively, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, I would," Gwen snorted. "But never mind that now. You're both aware why I called you."

Julie did not speak, knowing very well why. Kai stiffened. "You mean it _is_ true? Ben's dating the sorceress."

"Yes," Gwen answered. "Charmcaster. She's obviously got some kind of spell on him or she's setting him up for something."

"Must be a strong spell if he's not listening to you," Julie remarked.

Gwen scowled deeply. "Yeah. Somehow, she's hidden its aura from me."

Kai's thin black eyebrows rose in suspicion. "If you can't see it, what makes you so sure it's a spell? Or even manipulation? What if it's really just love?"

"Because it's impossible," Gwen hissed. "There's no way Ben could love her after what she tried to do to us and Kevin."

"Ben told me about that," Julie mentioned while also nodding in agreement. "Although, he said he could understand why she did that. When he, and you, believed that Max had been killed in the war with the Highbreed, he said he was thinking of all sorts of ways of using the Omnitrix to bring him back."

"Whether he understood her reasons or not is no excuse to fall in love with her," Gwen shot back hotly.

"Okay, okay, Gwen," Kai said, holding up her hands in an attempt to calm her down. "So you can't find the spell, right?"

"Right," Gwen answered.

"Then, what do we do?"

"Ben needs to experience an intense feeling that's stronger than Charmcaster's spell. That's why I've brought you two into this. Julie, you're his first love - - -

"Hold on," Julie interrupted. "I just told you that I don't have those kind of feelings for him anymore."

"I know, I remember," Gwen overrode her in a hurry. "You just have to make you him believe you do." She turned to Kai, resuming the explanation of her plan. "Kai, you're his first crush."

Kai grinned wickedly in reply. "Don't worry. I don't have to act. As you know, I've been wanting to ask him out for a while, but he was taken until recently."

"Well, you'll have to hold off on that," Gwen said, noticing the grimace on Julie's face. "Julie's getting the first try."

"What! Why? She's got no interest in him."

"Because, to Ben, all you were was a childhood crush of a ten year old. She was his girlfriend for nearly two years."

Kai looked as if she was about to argue against that statement, but then the expression in her eyes changed as she worked things out and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine. But when this is over and it turns out you're right, I want my chance to have him."

Gwen looked from her to Julie and back again. "Done," she said. "Especially if you're the one to break it." She glanced toward Julie. "I'll see my self out. Tell me how things go."

Julie nodded in acknowledgement. As Gwen left the room, she turned to face Kai and waited to hear the noise of the front door opening and shutting. When she had, the two seemingly adverse girls breathed out in relief.

"Glad that's over," Julie sighed, her gaze wandering back to the door.

Kai sat back down on the sofa. "Tell me about it," she replied. "Kevin was right when he said she was gonna make trouble. She's getting deceitful."

"I didn't want to believe him, because I thought it wasn't likely that Ben would fall for Charmcaster."

"Neither did Kevin, but he's going the right way about it, making sure. He's a hundred percent positive from talking to Ben and Sandra that it's not manipulation, but there's no way for him to check if Ben's under a spell."

"Well, this way, by following Gwen's plan, we can confirm that as well as keep an eye on her," Julie suggested, turning her head back to Kai as she spoke.

"Good idea," Kai agreed. "I'll tell Kevin about it on my way back to the motel."

"Sure, but there's one thing."

"What?"

Julie answered first by regarding her with a suspicious look and then said, "Stalking Ben?"

Kai blushed in embarrassment and looked away. "Yeah. I've been following him ever since he started things up for the Plumber kids two years ago. I was hoping to apologise for the way I treated him when we were ten and try to ask him out. Of course, he was with you."

"And Gwen caught you at it," Julie concluded.

"Yep. Many times. Told me to stay away. I did, only coming back when I heard rumours that you and he had broken up. Except for the most recent time, whenever I got here, the two of you had gotten back together."

Julie's eyelids flew up. "Wait a minute," she almost shouted. "Did you know about him and Charmcaster?"

"No. After all the times with you two, I didn't want to make another false start. But it looks like I might have been wrong not to."

"You mean, if Ben's under a spell?"

"Yes," Kai replied, nodding. "Gwen's the only way we can be sure he isn't. If neither of us succeeds, then there is no spell and no manipulation."

"Okay, so we do this and everything turns out okay."

"Maybe. Kevin's thinking Gwen might not listen to us about it not being manipulation. Also, there's the fact that she might be right on the spell, and if she is, we'll know it's a fake and I'll finally get my chance to date Ben."

"And, if it's no spell?" Julie asked, concern swirling into her eyes. "What will you do?"

"I'll go back home, knowing that I've missed my chance, probably for good. By the sound of things, if it is real, the relationship between Ben and Charmcaster is very deep."

Julie considered Kai's answer, weighing both scenarios together; first of Ben and Charmcaster sharing a happy life as a couple, and followed it up with the second where Kai pursued Ben and achieved her desire of dating him. And discovered that she was indeed fine with either one of them being the reality. Then a third unwelcome thought troubled her.

"You'd accept it?"

"Yes."

"So will I. But the main question, what we should really be thinking about if she's wrong, is how will Gwen take it?"

* * *

 **Gwen's plan is set, but her co-conspirators have turned out not be entirely supportive on her views. Can Ben convince Julie and Kai that his feelings for Charmcaster are genuine, and if so, can he finally convince Gwen?**

 **Wait and find out…**


	4. Julie Takes Her Turn

**Sorry for taking so long again, everyone. Christmas, New Years, problems at work and a few long bouts of writers' block turned out to lead to a huge uncreative mess. Thankfully now, I seem to be back in action.**

 **A/N: If you're interested, I have recently published the first chapter of my new novel, The Intruder, for all to see on inkitt . com under the penname Tony Franco. It is a suspense horror story about a young couple hoping to have a good time while spending a week at a holiday home, but they are unaware that upon their arrival they have attracted the attention of a mysterious figure who then seeks to stalk them for pleasure. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Anyway, onto Chapter 4 of Believe.**

* * *

Chapter 4- Julie Takes Her Turn

Yesterday she had been ready and determined; but now and here, she was not so sure. Julie gulped down a breath as she contemplated on the task she had ahead of her. She faced upward, lifting her gaze to stare across the Mr. Smoothies parking lot. Ben sat alone on one of the benches with his back to her and a drink in his hand. Julie turned her head to the left and then to the right, suspiciously looking out for Gwen. She found her watching from the alleyway close to the corner of the block behind her. Gwenwaved at her furiously, gesturing to her to keep going for Ben. Resummoning her courage, Julie turned in his direction and stepped towards him. As she did, she fished her phone out of her jacket pocket and sent a text message to Kevin.

'About to make contact. She's here.'

He sent her a reply. 'We're here too. Where is she?'

She hurriedly typed in an answer. 'Alleyway to my five o'clock. You?'

'Don't look. Rooftop, your ten o'clock.'

Trying as hard as she could, she moved her eyes as far as they could go without turning her head. She could not see either Kevin or Kai, but it gave her comfort to know they were there in case anything went wrong. Her attention focused back onto Ben as she neared the bench. She stopped two or three steps away from it.

"Ahem," she spoke loudly.

She noticed Ben flinch in surprise. He turned to her with a dumbfounded look on his face and the straw from his smoothie cup tucked between his lips. Julie blushed in a light shade of pink, remembering how that behaviour always made him appear awkwardly adorable to her.

"Hey Ben," she said sheepishly.

Ben plucked the straw out of his mouth. "Hey," he replied nervously. "Julie. I - - - I didn't - - - I thought you didn't want to speak to me again."

"Yeah, I remember what I said," Julie answered, the troubled memory of their breakup rising to the surface of her mind.

"So, what's up?"

"I just want to talk, and I've heard that you've got a new girlfriend."

"Yep," Ben nodded slowly. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"It might. Can I sit down?"

"Sure," he replied, pulling his hand up from the bench space it had been covering and shifting around so that she had a clear spot to sit next to him. Julie let out a short breath and took it.

 **:*:**

From the rooftops above, Kevin gazed down at the two through his binoculars, paying careful attention to how Ben was reacting to Julie's approach. At first, Ben had seemed edgy but he had expected that since this was the first time they had spoken to one another since their separation. Now however as Julie sat down on the bench and engaged in casual conversation with him, Ben was calm and settled.

"Okay, now I'm really starting to think Gwen's wrong," he muttered to himself. He picked up his phone and dialled in Kai's number.

"Yeah?" her voice answered.

"You getting a good look?"

From her position on the ground floor of the building underneath him, Kai looked over at Ben and Julie. "Yep. Not looking like a spell, is it?"

"Nope. What's Gwen doing?"

"Still watching from the alley, but she's not looking too happy."

"She's probably thinking Julie's not trying hard enough."

"Good bet. What do we do if she makes a move?"

"She won't. She's not gonna risk breaking cover."

"Maybe," Kai noted sceptically. "She's not acting normally, remember?"

"Don't remind me."

 **:*:**

"So, Charmcaster?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, so who told you?" Ben said in reply.

"I heard it from Kevin and Gwen."

Ben sighed exasperatedly as soon as heard his cousin's name. "Let me guess, you think it's some spell or manipulation?"

"The thought crossed my mind. It's why I'm concerned. Because if it's true, then I was afraid that my breaking up with you may have pushed you to fall under her spell."

Ben's face lit up with realisation. Was that it? Was that why Gwen was continuing to think Hope had put a spell on him, because of how horribly he had felt in the days following his breakup with Julie?

Seeing though that was what was it for Julie, he took her by the hand.

"I'll admit, breaking up with you that time was the worst I've felt in my life so far. There was just something about it that made it real and final in a way that our previous breakups didn't."

Julie nodded, recalling how after her anger towards him had gone away, she was consumed with the guilt of the terrible accusations she had spat at him while she had not said a thing toward her father who was just as much to blame for the night not going as she had planned it. But the damage, as she knew in the days that had come since, was done. She was no longer in love with Ben.

"But, after a while," Ben continued. "I began to see that it was for the best. You and I had always been arguing all the time. There were more of the bad parts of our relationship than there were of the good ones. I think we were just trying to hold on to what we had at the start, but we were losing it anyway because of how we were with each other."

"Yeah," Julie sighed, sadly agreeing with him.

"Hope came after I started believing that. It was on that mission, you know the one I took with Grandpa Max when Adwaita abducted Hex."

"I heard about it. Gwen refused to take part in it."

"Yes she did. She thought it was a trap, only it wasn't. Hex was really in trouble. At first, Hope and I avoided each other, due to our past encounters, but battling Adwaita's servants and obstacles brought us closer together. I realised, before we got Hex out of there, that I had fallen for her. I thought I was kidding myself that she would love someone like me back. But then, a month ago, she came here looking for me to tell me that she did."

Ben gazed at Julie in a serious way as he said the next ten words. "It's no spell. It's not manipulation. Julie, I love her."

Julie peered closer into his eyes and translated the way he was staring into hers with the words of his explanation. His talk about the breakup was tinged with genuine regret, hurt and nostalgia for the times they were together. His apparently short recovery sounded as if he had been in physical pain every time he remembered the breakup or her. His feelings for Charmcaster resonated with the sensation that they had developed over time rather than in a quick moment as a spell was likely to have him do, and that once those very same feelings had been laced with doubt that she could never return his affections. Then, as she reached how he had spoken of the day Charmcaster said that she was returning them, she knew that Ben had talked as though he was truly happy again. Like - - - -

 _Like he's really in love_ , she said to herself.

Hearing that mental thought, along with everything else that she had processed and seeing the commitment glowing in his eyes, Julie came to a conclusion. The relationship was real. She believed. Smiling, she grasped Ben's hand in recognition of the truth as tears slipped down from her eyes.

"I'm glad," she sobbed. "I'm sorry that I doubted you."

Ben shook his head. "Don't be," he said sympathetically. "I understand why you were worried and, honestly, you're handling it better than Gwen is."

Julie dried her tears with her free hand. "You have no idea," she replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Gwen contacted me, and Kai, to help her break you and Charm - - Hope up."

Ben's eyes tightened in fury. "What?" he disquietly asked.

"I didn't want to do it. Neither does Kai. We just wanted to find out what the truth was."

"And, now you know?" Ben guessed.

"Now I know, and yes Kai probably will as well. She's nearby."

"Okay then, just one question. How does Gwen think you two are going to help her break me and Hope up."

"She's asked us to take turns to snap you out of the 'spell'. In a romantic kind of way."

Ben's mouth fell open in shock. "That - that's - - - -

"I know. We only went along with it to find out the truth, and to keep her calm."

"Is Kevin in on this too?"

Julie nodded. Ben exhaled angrily. "I can't believe she'd do a thing like this," he growled.

"Well, hopefully, once Kai has had her 'try', all of us will be able to convince Gwen that you and Hope really love each other," Julie suggested.

"Yeah," Ben answered softly. The slight frown formed on his lips by his verbal growl turned gradually into a smile as he turned back to Julie. "Thanks, and tell Kevin and Kai thanks too. You're good friends."

Julie replied with a smile of her own. "Don't say that about Kai just yet," she warned him. "She has a mean crush on you."

She laughed as Ben paled in horror. "You mean she's gonna really try to flirt with me?" he stammered.

Julie shrugged her shoulders. "Depends on how she takes things today."

"Okay. Thanks for the heads up."

 **:*:**

The conversation went along pleasantly from there. Julie told Ben that, under Max's orders, she was going to be forming her own Plumbers team. Ben enquired as to who her new teammates were going to be. She answered that she was thinking of asking Alan and maybe Cooper, but Max had also been making suggestions from a list of newcomers from other planets. At the end of it all, the two parted happily, promising to remain as friends. Kevin and Kai withdrew from the area, satisfied that nothing bad had happened.

Or so they had thought.

Underneath the bench, after the four of them had all gone, a tiny stone creature scuttled out over the pavement and across the road to its mistress' waiting palm. Gwen lifted it up to her face and looked unemotionally from it to the identical one she held in her other hand. Her lips were set in a firm line. Her green eyes were blazing with fury as her hands clenched around the creatures that had been acting as transmitter and receiver for her. The creatures squirmed and wriggled in her grip as the series of heated thoughts rushed through her head.

She had been betrayed. Kevin, Julie, Kai, they were all falling for it. Falling for the lie. Couldn't they see what they were doing, what they were _allowing_?

Charmcaster. It all started with Charmcaster. Why couldn't any of them see it, and why couldn't Grandpa Max see it either if the enchantment had really been cast in Ledgerdomain? Ben was under a spell and they were all being blind, all because they wanted him to be happy after the damage his breakup with Julie had inflicted on him.

Wait, she thought, that was it. Julie had to have been feeling guilty. She had practically said it herself. Guilt was no trigger to break a love spell. She should have put Kai on this mission from the get-go; at least she had some feelings of love for Ben. But now there was the likelihood that Kai would never make a full-on attempt to romance Ben if she was now thinking along the same lines as Kevin and Julie.

"Then I'll just have to do something about that myself," Gwen declared aloud as she crushed the stone creatures under her fingers.

 **:*:**

The bus from the motel to Julie's house was taking longer to get there than it had the night before. Kai checked the time on her phone. She was already five minutes late for the meeting with Julie and Gwen. Grumbling under her breath, she forced herself to be patient until the street Julie's house was on came into sight.

She leapt onto her feet and pressed the nearest alert button to tell the driver to pull over at the next stop. As the bus slowed, Kai privately hoped that Gwen hadn't tried to get the day's results from Julie just yet. If Gwen was going to react badly, then it would be best that she was there to help settle things down and give her the hope in the fact that she, Kai, had not had her turn to romance Ben yet. Collecting her breath as the bus halted, Kai walked to the side door and hopped off, making the rest of her way to Julie's house on foot. Once reaching the front yard, she went up to the door and knocked on it twice.

The door opened but instead of being met with Julie, she found that it was Gwen on the other side of the frame.

"Sorry I'm late," Kai said.

"No problem," Gwen replied, taking a step back to let her inside.

Kai regarded her initially with suspicion but passed it off as she proceeded into the house. Behind her, the smile Gwen was bearing dropped to a scowl as she closed the door. Kai walked into the living room. Her eyes widened in fear as she took everything she saw in there. Both Julie and her father were pinned to the floor, their arms, necks and legs restrained by mana energy. Julie's pet, Ship, was trapped in a large pink orb hovering above the two; seeing Kai, the poor little Galvanic Mechamorph moaned to her for help. A movement from Julie caused Kai's attention to fall back onto her. Her mouth was open, trying to form words, but no verbal sounds were issuing out from between her lips. Kai got the idea however and revolved around to face her adversary. Gwen now stood two metres down the hallway from her, both arms crossed over her chest and her left eyebrow raised accusingly.

"Gwen, what are you doing?" she exclaimed.

In reply, Gwen held her right hand up and flatly spoke the words of a spell. A sphere of pink energy swirled into being above her palm. Kai tensed as she heard the voices of Ben and Julie speaking.

'Gwen contacted me, and Kai, to help her break you and Charm - - Hope up.'

'What?'

'I didn't want to do it. Neither does Kai. We just wanted to find out what the truth was.'

'And, now you know?'

'And now I know, and yes Kai probably will as well. She's nearby.'

Gwen cancelled the spell out, ceasing the magically recorded conversation from going on any further. Kai stared back at her with a grim expression.

"So your minds are made up?" Gwen inquired.

"More than ever," Kai answered bravely. "I think I don't even need to try. Isn't it obvious, Gwen? They love each other. What is it that makes it so hard to get it through your head?"

Unfathomable anger ripped across Gwen's face. "What makes it so hard for all of you to see it? Uncle Carl and Aunt Sandra. Kevin. Julie. You. You're all blind!" she screamed in rage. "You don't even know the first thing about detecting spells, so how could you know what the _truth_ is?"

"That may be true, Gwen. None of us know how to detect spells, but we do know how to accept the truth," Kai retorted. "Tell me, have you even found a single trace of Charmcaster's energy around Ben?"

Gwen avoided the implications of that question. "Then it's manipulation. She deludes Ben; Ben tells everyone else what he thinks is the truth. Have _you_ even thought of _that_?"

"What about Kevin, huh?" Kai shot back. "Are you saying that he's wrong?"

"Yes I am," Gwen said, decreasing the height of her voice to a lower and more dangerous tome. "And I'm going to show him he's wrong. Show all of you you're wrong. With your help, Kai."

"Then let me make it clear to you. That's not happening."

Gwen glared at her. "I never said you had a choice. Appendage-A Regoria!"

Kai's body went rigid, her arms slapping to her sides and her legs flying together with a dull snap. She gasped in horror. "Gwen, no, stop," she spoke fearfully.

"You and everyone will thank me for this when it's over," Gwen stated as she raised her arms and began intoning a second spell. Two thick streams of her mana poured forth from her hands, flowing flawlessly like naturally built rivers twisting and curving through the air. Kai gasped again as they neared her, weaving towards her head. They each split apart into four thinner streams, making them eight in number. Two of the streams entered her mouth and travelled downwards to her heart; a second pair wafted in past her nostrils, seeking control of her sense of smell; the fifth and sixth streams infiltrated her eyes; and the final two passed through her skull into her brain as if they were ghosts going through a wall.

Then Gwen's enchantment over Kai was set to work. Her brain was reprogrammed to think of nothing but romantic thoughts towards Ben. Her eyes were to forever lock onto him whenever he was near her. Her sense of smell was trained to hunt for his scent. Her heart was taught to hunger for his love. Grinning widely, Gwen said one last word and sealed the spell inside Kai. The energy streams disappeared.

"Now, what was it you were saying about Ben?" she asked.

Kai smiled dreamily. "I don't want that sorceress near him again. Ben is mine. I will make him mine."

Gwen crowed silently in victory. "Tomorrow, Kai, tomorrow," she cautioned her reaffirmed ally.

"Tomorrow. Yes," Kai nodded. "Tomorrow, I make him mine."

Pleased with Kai's answer and congratulating herself with how well her spell had worked, Gwen could not help adding one more line.

"While I keep Kevin out of your way."

* * *

 **The fears of Ben and Kevin are fast coming to life as Gwen and her plan spirals more wildly out of control. Can this dangerous alteration be stopped? Find out in the next chapter.**


	5. Off The Rails

**Whew! I guess I wasn't kidding when I said I seemed to be back in action. I present you all with Chapter 5.**

* * *

Chapter 5- Off the Rails

The night wasn't too good for Ben as he tossed in his bed, troubled by the extremes Gwen was going to to break him and Hope. A fresh new nightmare visited his subconscious, attacking yet another one of his dreams of him and Hope spending time together and transforming it into a dark and horrible experience. He and Hope had just been to the Bellwood Public Swimming Pool as a way of keeping themselves cool on an excruciatingly hot summer's day and were then on their way to the café across the road from it when Gwen showed up in Anodite form.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Gwen," he had told her. "Can you give it a rest?"

Her blank white alien eyes gave him no answer. Instead she turned to Hope as if Ben had not spoken to her at all.

"Release him," she spoke in a cold and demanding voice.

Hope frowned at her and crossed her arms. "Stop ignoring it," she said. "We're in love."

"How about you stop it with your lies! Set him free!" Gwen growled.

"He _is_ free, Gwen."

Gwen's jaws set together in a furious clench. Her Anodite powers began to rise, levelling gradually up to their maximum. Hope sensed the threat coming from her and readied her magic to defend herself. Ben, seeing what was about to commence, moved forward.

"Gwen, stop. Just stop," he pleaded with her.

This time Gwen turned the wrath in her eyes on him. He flinched as he felt the solemn unbreakable dedication she was putting into her next action.

"No, Ben," she replied. "If she won't set you free, there is only one thing to do to save you."

Before he could do anything more to stop her, Gwen tapped into her powers and threw a wave of energy at Hope. Hope reacted in turn, building up a shield to protect herself and brought it back down to cast two energy discs at Gwen's head. Gwen's glowing violet-white hair snapped at the discs, breaking the both of them in half and causing them to vanish. Hope followed up on her attack by creating a whip of mana in her right hand and swinging it towards Gwen's left leg. Gwen caught it on her arm and, using her right hand, sent pink lightning zapping up the length of the whip. The lightning traversed into Hope's hand, burning the skin of her palm.

Seeing her hurt drove Ben into action. Activating the Omnitrix and setting it to Jetray, he threw his hand down on the plunger and to his satisfaction became the red stingray-like alien. He jumped into the air, grabbing Gwen by the shoulders with his clawed feet and lifted her up off the ground.

"Ben, put me down!" Gwen ordered him angrily as the coil of Hope's whip dissipated from her arm.

"Until you see the truth for what it is, I am not going to!" he barked back at her.

Gwen went silent; too silent for Ben's liking. He glanced down at her. Her round white eyes stared into his. Now they were revealing a reaction to him. They were wide with disbelief.

"You're - - - you're choosing her? Over me?" she gaped incredulously.

"I don't want to," he spoke truthfully. "I'd like it if you two got along just like you expected me and Kevin to when the three of us became a team."

"Me? And Charmcaster? Get along?" Gwen said distastefully. "You're out of your mind."

The hardness in Ben's eyes softened. "Why can't you see it, Gwen? Why is it so hard for you to understand?" he asked with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"It just is, Ben," Gwen retorted, her stare quickly turning fierce. "It's either me or her."

"Stop talking like that!"

Gwen shook her head in refusal. "Goodbye Ben."

"What do you mean, goo - - -

Then he saw it in her hand; the bulb-shaped ball of mana energy. Gwen looked into his eyes one more time as she raised her hand and slapped her spell onto his leg. It crackled into his flesh, starting up within it a sense of searing hot pain. Ben howled in agony. His latching hold on her shoulders lessened. Gwen pulled herself free and dropped.

Ben's clenched eyes opened back up in shock, just then only realising how high he had been taking her. High enough for a fall to be completely fatal, the revelation translated into his mind.

"Gwen!" he cried, plummeting down after her.

Metres below him, Gwen summoned up another spell and threw it up towards him. In the long space of open air between her and Ben, the fluctuating streak of energy transformed into a swinging pair of bolas.

Ben tried to evade them.

He failed.

Gasping as the cords wrapped and tightened around him, pinning his wings to his body, Ben watched helplessly as Gwen continued to fall. He fought against his restraints, but they were unbreakable.

"No," he moaned, trying to deny it as he too began to plunge to the ground. "No."

"GWEN!"

 **:*:**

The fact that his eyes were open should have been the first sign that he was awake, but Ben did not comprehend it. Although the dream had not finished, he pictured everything that was likely to have followed. Whilst still succumbing to the whims of gravity, he would keep up in his attempts to rip himself free of Gwen's spell and upon success fly back down in time to save her. But before he could accomplish even the first thing, the spell would vanish of its own accord. And he knew what that would mean.

Ben placed his hand over his eyes, letting a strangled sob choke out from his throat. That was the second nightmare he had had that night. Although he didn't want to remember the first one either, it came unbidden to his mind. He blocked it out before it could repeat by summarising it to a short but nonetheless heartshattering statement.

Gwen kills Hope.

His hand curling into a fist, he punched down into the mattress of his bed. "No," he said to himself. "Neither of them are gong to happen."

And what if one of them does, especially the first, a nagging thought argued with him. What would you do then? What if Gwen reaches the point of wanting to kill Hope?

"She won't," Ben stated defensively.

But the thought stayed with him, influencing him to actually think about what he would have to do if Gwen ever did push herself to that stage. Would Gwen really try to turn murderer, and if she did, would he have to take her down and put her inside the Null Void? Or would he do something much worse if she did kill Hope?

 _You mean, kill her in revenge_ , a tiny dark place in his heart spoke aloud.

Ben first reacted in disbelief to the sudden appearance of that mental comment, then he played the scenario it was telling him about in his head and recognised the intense feelings of betrayal and fury he would have if it was really happening, and he finally surrendered. It was exactly what he would do. To lose Hope to anyone or anything would tear him apart. He groaned in defeat.

"Gwen, why can't you just listen?"

 **:*:**

The nightmares continued to trouble Ben from the moment that he tried to get back to sleep again and failed, to when daybreak came, and throughout much of the morning until it had got to the point where he said yes to his mother's question if he wanted to shopping with her or not without realising what she had said to him. Puzzled at his answer, Sandra asked if he was feeling all right. Ben blinked confusingly in response as the question reran through his head and he discovered what he had just agreed to.

And found that he needed the distraction.

Ben reaffirmed his decision. Still surprised, Sandra told him to be ready to go in ten minutes. He was ready in three. Along with his mother, he went quietly out to the car and got in to sit in the front passenger seat. Before starting the ignition, Sandra took another curious look at her son. The curiosity changed into worry as she recognised that he was concerned about something. Then she arrived upon the idea that he was thinking about Gwen's reaction to his and Hope's relationship. She frowned, thinking to herself of how badly her niece was behaving in the few days that had passed since Ben had told her. When she had got that phone call from Gwen moments later, it had left her a little panicked but now, knowing from Kevin that Gwen was employing methods of breaking Ben and Hope up, she was immensely disturbed by the lengths Gwen was going to to prove that she was right. Bringing Julie into it, in particular, definitely had the alarm bells ringing. Sandra's eyes tensed at that as she recalled that in the days following _that_ breakup, Gwen was quite vehemently talking against Julie in Ben's defence. However, Sandra noted, it was now appearing that Gwen recruiting Julie, and Kai, was a good thing as they were turning out to be on Ben's side. She had breathed a sigh of relief upon Kevin telling her that that she began hoping Gwen would finally listen to everyone else. But later on, in the presence of that hope, there came a small irremovable worry that Gwen wouldn't and would go on to try a different tactic. As she thought about it, the worry rose back up to the surface and added itself to her current concern. It fastened its hold there, snaking in and entrenching its roots into the depths of her heart and mind and giving her mental images of any drastic measures that Gwen could try using.

Not for the first time since she had made that call to him, Sandra wished that wherever he was right now, Max would hurry up and finish his mission and get back home. Before something really bad did happen.

 **:*:**

Beep beep beep.

Kevin's eyes switched to a different focus from the one he was using for his present task as he heard the alert system from his tracker. He slid out from underneath his car, where he had been doing another round of fine tuning, and picked up the tracker from where he had left it on the bench. He pushed his thumb down on the flashing green button. The monitor screen of the device turned on and displayed a road map. The tracker zeroed in onto the symbol of the Omnitrix moving at a moderately fast pace.

"Okay Ben, where are you heading?"

He got his answer as his eyes followed the symbol until it stopped for a slow moment and then started again, this time going at a more leisurely speed. Kevin moved his eyes to the location's name. His eyebrows rose questioningly.

"The mall," he stated in a low tone of surprise.

The facts rolled through his mind. The mall? The only reason Ben would go to the mall of his own free will was either to get the latest video game or movies and TV series home media release, or if Gwen and Julie had badgered him into being a second or third opinion on one of their fashion store trips. Neither of those were possible as it was the wrong day of the week for new releases, Gwen wasn't talking to Ben, and Julie was supposed to stay on standby.

Then again, he thought, what if it had to do with Charmcaster? It might be worth investigating.

He put the tracker back down on the bench and removed his phone from his jeans pocket. Scrolling down his contacts list, he found Julie's name and pressed on it. Her contact information appeared. He clicked on 'Call' and put the phone to his ear.

Julie didn't answer.

Kevin looked at the screen of his phone strangely. She was supposed to be answering; that was what standby was about. Shaking his head in agitation, Kevin transferred back to the contacts list and selected Kai's name and then the option to call her. This time someone answered.

"Hello."

"Kai, it's Kevin. We gotta get to the mall."

There was a slowness in her replying. "Why? What's the problem?"

"I don't know if it actually is a problem," he explained. "But Ben's there and he usually doesn't go to the mall. I think we should check it out."

"Okay. I'll see you there," Kai spoke after another moment of silence.

"Right. Um, is Julie with you?"

Kai was quick to answer him. "No."

"Oh. Okay. It's just that she didn't answer when I called."

Another long pause followed, then Kai spoke again.

"Maybe you should stop by her house on the way and see if she's there."

Kevin nodded. "Good idea. But stay out of sight at the mall until we get there." He switched the call to off.

 **:*:**

At Julie's house, Gwen pulled the phone easily out of Kai's grip; Kai obediently did not object. Gwen gazed at the phone's screen, her eyes catching the split-second image of Kevin as he hung up on the other end of the line before it cancelled out and went back to Kai's home menu. She placed the phone on the kitchen counter.

"So, Ben's at the mall, is he?"

Effortlessly falling into one of her trances, her eyes turned laser pink as she searched for Ben's energy signature. Passing through many an obstacle that would be nearly impossible for a solid body to get by, she caught up to him as he approached the main entrance. A detection of the signature right next to him told her he was there with his mother. Gwen surveyed her aunt's mind.

"Helping Aunt Sandra out with the groceries?" she smiled, having discerned the reason Ben was at the mall. "That's a first. So there's nothing to worry about." She exited the trance. The pink light left her eyes. "On the other hand though, it's a perfect opportunity."

She turned around to Kai. "Go, and do your best," she commanded.

"But, what about his mother?" Kai asked. "Didn't you say that she would interfere?"

Gwen frowned. Yes, she had said that, meaning that it was a very valid point. Again she turned towards thinking about Sandra. Her aunt was a creature of habit when it came to grocery shopping. She would go to the supermarket first for packaged and frozen products, then to the discount store for laundry, toiletry and cleaning items, and finish by going over to the fruit and vegetable shop as she preferred fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen. But that was how she did it when she was on her own. Now that Ben was there with her, would she change that?

 _It was possible_ , Gwen thought, answering her own question. She looked back to Kai again.

"You will still go, but wait for an opening. If Aunt Sandra and Ben ever separate, wait until she is far away enough from him and strike."

"Yes," Kai nodded. "I will make Ben mine."

On the floor behind them, Julie squirmed against her bonds, causing herself to be noticed. Turning to her as Kai left the room, Gwen sighed in exasperation. Julie stopped moving and looked up at her, her eyes flaring in desperate anger. Knowing what she was thinking, Gwen shook her head in amazement.

"You know that's no good, Julie," she said. "The only ways to break my mana energy are either to go through me or when it's countered by someone or something more powerful than me, and we both know that the means of succeeding in the second one is hard to do."

Julie gave her another hard prolonged stare. Gwen sensed that it was akin to the girl declaring loudly that she was missing the point. She realised just where that was being sourced from.

"You really, honestly believe there's love between Charmcaster and Ben?" she asked morbidly.

Julie nodded, her silent voice forming in her throat what would have been a grunt. Gwen's lips curved into an uncharacteristic sneer.

"Well, we'll just see who's right, won't we? In the meantime, I've got a boyfriend to trap."

Gwen waved her hand, making a layer of pink mist appear to life above Julie and her father. The mist descended, coating the both of them in its expanse. Julie felt her eyelids shaking; all too late, she recognised that Gwen was placing a sleeping charm on them. Ship seemed to be agreeing with her as he was squeaking in terror from his cage levitating close to the ceiling. As she began to drift off, she privately wished that Ben would be able to see through the act and hoped that, if he didn't, whatever feelings he had towards Hope were strong enough to break it.

 **:*:**

"Unable to reach contact," the mechanical voice of the communicator in his dashboard repeated for the fifth time.

At the steering wheel of his car, Kevin groaned again. Why wasn't Julie answering? Didn't she think that a possibility of investigating Ben in regards to his relationship with Charmcaster wouldn't come so soon after yesterday's one? Or was there something else going on that he didn't know about?

Whatever the case was, he supposed, he was going to find out for himself. He indicated to the vehicles behind him that he was turning right into the next road and revolved the wheel to move in that direction. He watched the road that was now ahead of him, looking along the right-hand side line of houses until he saw and reached Julie's and parked the car out by the front lawn. Casting a wary and suspicious glance at the house, wondering again why Julie was not answering any of his calls, Kevin got out of the car, headed up to the door, rang the bell and waited.

Just before he gestured his hand to push the button for the bell a second time, the door opened. Kevin brought his hand down to his side and moved his face to face the person behind it. It was Julie.

"Hey," he said. "How come you haven't been answering your phone or your communicator? I've been trying to call you countless times."

Julie turned her head back down the hall nervously. Kevin followed her glance, trying to recall from memory where she was looking towards. The lounge room, if he was right. He was taken out of his line of thinking as Julie circled her head forward to look him in the eye.

"It's Gwen. She's here," she stammered.

Kevin blinked in surprise, responding with a short "Oh."

Now it was all making sense to him. There was no way Julie could have replied to any of his attempts to contact her without letting Gwen know about the operation. A quiet gulp lobbed up the inside of his throat as she imagined how she would react to him going around her back like this, especially with how she was presently treating Ben after he kept his relationship with Charmcaster hidden from her.

"Yeah," Julie replied to him. "Maybe you'd better come in. She's not really happy with how yesterday went."

Kevin's eyes tightened with concern. "She's still not listening to reason, huh?" he whispered quietly.

Julie nodded. "She's talking to Kai about using seduction techniques."

Seduction techniques? _Gwen_ was talking about using _seduction techniques_? To use on Ben? That was going way over the line. Gwen knew that Ben was too nice to say no to a girl when they were really trying to get his attention. He wouldn't stand a chance.

 _Which is why Gwen's doing it_ , he grimly said to himself before deciding that that was it. It had to stop here. He walked past Julie who closed the door behind her and followed him up the hallway.

When Kevin entered the living room, the first thing he felt was confusion. His eyes flew towards Ship trapped in airborne cage of energy. The Mechamorph pup squealed in warning to him. The squeal aroused Julie and her father, to whom Kevin now had his eyes on. Immediately forgetting was happening to him, Mr. Yamamoto struggled against the energy shackles binding around him. Julie, bound in the same way, reacted differently. Upon seeing him there, she looked up at him in terror, her brown irises shaking with fear. Her mouth opened and closed at constant intervals, forming voiceless words.

Then he came to understand. Each of the three people he was looking at now in horror were being restrained with _pink_ mana energy, and if the Julie that was on the floor was the real one, then - - - -

He turned to face the other Julie.

The figure before him shimmered. The short-cut black hair atop her head changed and grew to a shoulder-length red. The brown eyes quaked, rumbling until they became an emerald shade of green. The rest of the disguise fell away, revealing the clothes and body of a person he knew all too well.

The green eyes stared into his in a disquieting rage. "Hello, honey," Gwen spoke. Her eyes flood up with dangerous gleaming pink light.

 **:*:**

Ben and his mother had just about finished with the majority of the shopping to be done at the supermarket. Although he had followed her instructions and had gotten the right products from the shelves, Sandra was quick to notice that he had been pretty much silent throughout the whole thing. Again her concern for her son rose within her. Ever since she had figured out that the reason Ben had chosen to go along with her was because of how things were currently going between him and Gwen, she had been hoping that he would open up to her.

 _But he hasn't_ , she thought to herself. _Maybe we should speed things up a bit_.

After going through the register and reloading the groceries now contained in shopping bags into the trolley, Sandra removed her purse from her handbag and extracted a twenty dollar bill from its sleeves.

"Ben?"

He turned to her, his mind still being focused on another place. She handed him the money and gave him the list for items she needed from the fruit and vegetable store.

"Could you get these for me and then meet me back at the car?"

He looked at her blankly. His empty stare nearly caused her to falter; he seemed like he was wandering around lost somewhere in the wilderness. The tiny bit of shock she was feeling mutated into a blade of anger, a blade she wanted to thrust at her niece for hurting him like this. Sandra took charge of her emotions and stepped closer to him.

"Is it Gwen?"

His lifeless eyes took on a semblance of consciousness. Ben nodded.

"Why?"

"I'm scared, mom," he said brokenly. "I'm scared of anything she might do. To herself. To me. Or to Hope."

A choke caught Sandra at the top of her windpipe. So that was it. Like her, Ben was afraid of something terrible happening, and that it would result in either him or someone he loved coming to harm. And she realised, if that did happen, he would blame himself for it. Well, it was not going to be that way.

"Ben, do you love Hope?"

He nodded in answer. She pressed forward.

"How does she make you feel?"

"Good," he replied verbally, then he corrected himself by saying, "No. She makes me feel great. Every time I see her. Every time she looks and smiles at me."

Sandra found that as a more positive response. "Then, if Gwen keeps being as stubborn as she is, and she tells you to give Hope up?"

Ben's answer to that question was both immediate and sharp. "No. I wouldn't."

Sandra fought off the smile that was desiring to come to her lips. "Then, in the end, if she doesn't want to accept it and keeps treating you and Hope like this, what are you going to do?"

This time Ben took longer to answer, as she knew he would. Sandra saw the emotional battle raging on behind his eyes. Gwen was not only his cousin, but also someone who had been an integral part of his life for such a long time. Now because of how deeply he was in love with her, Hope was fast becoming an integral part of his life herself and that was something Gwen vocally, _very_ vocally, disliked and would not allow her to be. So Gwen was trying to force Hope away, but Ben did not want her to go. He loved her. He loved Hope. And if Gwen couldn't accept that - - - - -

The battle in Ben's eyes subsided. He closed his eyes for a moment, knowing that he had his answer and that it was not an easy one. He repeated it again in his head to make sure he was going to say it right.

"I won't do anything except defend myself and Hope, and move on. If Gwen still doesn't want to accept it, then that's her problem."

The smile succeeded at last in appearing on Sandra's face. Ben returned it, answering her back with a small happy grin.

"Thanks mom."

"No problem. Now, worry about Gwen later. You've got a list of things to get," she said, pointing at the list of items she wanted him to get from the fruit and vegetable store in his hand.

Ben laughed, the first laugh his mother had heard from in a while, as he took his actual first look at the slip of paper. The grin fell somewhat as he glimpsed what the items were.

"Zucchini, squash, brussel sprouts? Mom, really?" he asked in childish horror.

"Yes Ben," Sandra chuckled. "Really. Go get them."

Ben shook his head in wry amusement. There were times that he just could not figure his mother out. One time she's all concerned about how down he was feeling and then, when that was fixed, she tortures him with things like three of the worst vegetables on the planet. Once again, the latest in an endless number of times, he wondered if all mothers were like this. Then, like every other time, he thought about how consistently strict his aunt could be and counted himself lucky.

"Okay. See you at the car," he replied, turning around to head for the store.

As mother and son parted, walking away from each other to go to their separate destinations, a pair of eyes kept track of Ben. Kai waited a few moments, glancing once towards Sandra to ensure that she would not see her, and began trailing after Ben.

 **:*:**

"Gwen! What are you doing?"

Shaken out of her concentration on trying to locate Kai through her meditation trance, Gwen rounded back to Kevin to see that he was still battling with his restraints. Her scowl melted into a firm line as she re-examined her work. Two pink orbs of energy were enveloped around his hands, preventing him from being able to touch and absorb anything. His arms were forcibly stretched out by a pair of mana chains that wrenched up to the ceiling. His feet were manacled to a solid block she had also fashioned out of her magic. So far nothing he had done had even fractured them.

She raised her eyes up to his. His black irises and pupils were quivering in a mixture of fear and horror, not of her as she had initially been thinking, but for her. The scowl reappeared in a spasm of distaste.

"That's something I should be asking you," she stated in her mood of near uncontrollable anger. "You went around my back. Undermining me."

"That's not what it was about," Kevin defended himself.

"Maybe not, but it's what you did."

"We were just trying to get you to see the truth if you're wrong about Ben and Charmcaster."

"I'm not wrong," Gwen said, the fury etched on her features settling into an eerie calmness. "As you're going to know soon."

A new kind of fear entered Kevin's eyes. "What do you mean? What have you done?" he exclaimed.

"I think I'll let Julie answer that one. She's been here long enough."

As she turned back around to resume meditating, Gwen waved her hand in a tiny sweeping gesture. Kevin redirected his eyes to the girl shackled to the floor. A gagging sound emerged from her mouth. Julie gave out a stare of surprise, realising that she could actually speak again. She licked her lips, which had gone dry from her screaming mutely an extreme number of times. Then she explained to Kevin all that had occurred since last night recounting Gwen's attack of her, her father and Ship; then of her lying in wait to trap Kai and put the spell on her and following that with waiting even longer for the right moment for the bewitched Kai to go after Ben; and ending it with Gwen putting her plan into motion and preparing to trap him.

Having caught up, Kevin's terrified expressions of horror evolved into one of aghast disbelief. Glancing from Julie to her father who was remaining totally quiet, obviously choosing to let things go ahead as they were without resistance, and then towards Ship who moaned at him softly, the disbelief cycled into pain. His eyes moved back to centre on Gwen.

How could she be acting like this? Given her rivalry with Charmcaster and the many failed chances of redemption she had given her, he had been expecting her to act in the way she had appeared to have been acting. Treating Ben with a cold shoulder. Behaving in a completely stubborn way when noone seemed to appreciate or surrender to her point of view. Brining Julie and Kai into the mix.

Gwen had always done those kinds of things, only occasionally taking it to the extreme. But this was something entirely new, something that was going way _way_ too far. Something that he had to stop.

"Gwen!" he shouted at her.

At first it was like she had not heard him at all, and then he saw the pink glare of Gwen focusing her mana energies reflected against the far wall and he knew she was deep in her meditation. And if that was not confirmation enough, her next remark was.

"Good. We don't have to wait long. She will approach him in a few moments."

Kevin groaned, exhausted and defeated. There was nothing he could do in time if she was telling the truth, which she most likely was. Gwen's magic was simply too powerful for him to break. Mentally, he apologised to Ben for what was about to happen and called himself a failure for not seeing how this whole situation was changing Gwen. Outwardly, he spoke to her.

"Do you have any idea how much this is going to hurt him?"

Gwen did not answer back to him; her mind and emotions were being swept up in the overwhelming enthralment of what she was now experiencing. Ben was finishing up at the fruit and vegetable store. He paid the cashier the bill and got the plastic bag full of zucchini, squash and sprouts and the change in money. Pocketing the change and slinging the straps of the bag over his arm to rest on his right shoulder, he thanked the cashier and strode towards the exit of the store.

Kai moved in.

 **:*:**

As Ben stepped outside of the fruit and vegetable store and turned to go towards the carpark, he stopped short as girl intercepted him in his path. He blinked once to be sure he was wrong about the person it was, but it turned out he was not.

"Kai?"

"Hey Ben. Long time, no see."

Ben gulped as he saw the seductive gaze in his old crush's eyes. "Y - Yeah," he stuttered. "What brings you to Bellwood?"

 _Stupid Ben_ , he thought to himself. He knew why she was here. Julie had told him that just yesterday. It was all a part of Gwen's plan to get him to break up with Hope and also was a part of Kevin's semi-counter plan to get Gwen to accept the truth if she was wrong. Julie and Kai were supposed to act like they were flirting with him. Although, he amended nervously, Kai seemed to be putting on her act a little too strong.

Kai moved closer to him. "You," she whispered amorously. "I don't want you hanging around with that sorceress anymore."

"Wh - whi - which one? I know a few."

"You know who I mean," Kai spoke, her sweetened voice turning into a hiss. "Charmcaster. She's evil, Ben."

Ben shivered. This was starting to look like it was not an act. Like Kai was fully agreeing with what Gwen had been saying. But that was not what Julie had said; she told him that she and Kai had been beginning to see that the love he has for Hope was real.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Kai, I think you should turn the act down a bit. You're really making me think you don't approve of me and Hope."

It quickly struck him that those words were the wrong ones to say. A dull anger flashed through Kai's eyes and she lunged at him, opening up her arms. Before he could do anything to resist her, her arms locked him in a tight and restricted embrace with her body pressing gently into his. She glared at him fiercely.

"I don't," she growled. "You're mine, Ben. You _are_ mine."

Her right hand jumped suddenly to cup the back Ben's head and possessively angled it down for her to reach. It was then that Ben saw the flare of Gwen's mana in her eyes, and in an instant he knew. Somehow Gwen had discovered that her friends were working partly against her and had now set this trap for him, knowing that he would be expecting Kai to approach him. A trap he had fallen right into. It only occurred to him then, at that moment, to break out of Kai's hold.

Kai raised her head to level her lips up to his and kissed him.

What came next happened within the single breath of a second. From his heart, Ben cried out to wherever Hope was in apology and shouted that he loved her. A formless shape of energy came into being from his cry and flew up, swirling out from his body and into Kai's. There the energy met Gwen's spell at its various fronts and collided with them. In a series of minuscule yet astronomical explosions, both the energy and the spell were destroyed.

Kai blinked, at last realising where she was and what she was doing. In a panic, she freed Ben from her arms and sprang away from him. Fearfully, she gazed up at him, exclaiming, "Ben, I'm sorry."

But when her eyes met his again, instead of the hurt she suspected he would be showing, all she found was understanding.

"It's alright, Kai," Ben said consolingly, ignoring the strange looks he and her were getting from passersby. "It was for a second, but I saw Gwen's mana in your eyes."

Kai nodded disparately, glad that Ben was able to forgive her so easily but there was something that was making her curious. "How did you break the spell?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I just thought about Hope, saying sorry to her and telling her that I love her."

Kai froze. She remembered what Gwen had said about what was needed to break a spell; an intense experience or feeling. _His love for Charmcaster_ , she said to herself, _that's how it was broken. Ben really does love her. Gwen was wrong._

"You know, I think that might be it," she said to Ben.

Ben's left eyebrow rose. "So, I've got you convinced?"

"Yes. Yes you do."

"Good," Ben sighed gladly, then he switched to a serious mood, asking, "Now tell me, what happened when Gwen put the spell on you?"

 **:*:**

Ben and Kai were not the only ones affected by the spell. Unseen by anyone, the formless energy had survived its own destruction and, in a split second, it had travelled across the astral plane towards Gwen. It struck her mental focus with a blinding snap, casting her out of her meditative state.

Mostly unaware of what had hit her, Gwen rubbed her eyes, wondering what that attack could have been. Suddenly she had it figured out. Her spell had been broken, which could mean only one thing.

"No," she muttered in quiet denial. "It's impossible. It can't be real. I _won't_ let it be real."

"Ship! Now!"

Gwen turned around in a startled horror. In a flash, she saw that Kevin was released from his shackles with both feet firmly on the ground and realised that he was the one who had shouted out to Ship. She turned to the cage she had the Mechamorph in, only to see it was not there. Ship leaped at her, his body spreading out to take her into his confines. She tried to summon up an energy shield to stop him.

Nothing happened. Instead of trying to defend herself in another way, Gwen used the precious few moments she had questioning what was going on. Fear washed over, as did Ship as he formed himself into a mechanical suit capable of containing her. Somehow the breaking of the spell she had on Kai was so incredibly strong that not only did it neutralise all of her other spells, but had also disabled her powers.

Ship completed his work, molding her arms into a position behind her back and forced her hands to clasp together, rendering her helpless and unable to use her powers if they should return. Through the suit's visor, Gwen saw Kevin, Julie and Julie's father approach her.

"I'm going to call the police," Julie's father declared.

"No, Mr. Yamamoto," Kevin argued. "This is a Plumbers matter. Julie, can you and Ship take her home? Her parents will need an explanation."

"Sure," Julie replied. "What about you?"

"I'm going to check on Ben and Kai. See if they're okay."

"Alright. Come on, Ship."

Ship turned, manipulating Gwen to use her legs to follow her. Kevin went after them. Mr. Yamamoto hung back, shrugged indifferently, and set to work on reorganising his living room to what it had been before last night. Inside Ship, Gwen squirmed in terror, shrieking desperately at Julie in front of her and at Kevin behind her. Soon she came to the conclusion that they could not hear her and that Ship must have soundproofed the suit, leaving her alone to her fears. Kevin had said to Mr. Yamamoto that taking care of her was a Plumbers matter. What had he meant by that? Were they going to remove her from their ranks? Put her on trial? Imprison her? Throw her into the Null Void?

Each thought sent a new fresh wave of panic sweeping through her, frightening her as she acknowledged to herself what all of her loved ones were going to see her as from now on. A bad guy. A villain. A monster.

An _enemy_.

* * *

 **With Gwen captured, it may seem like this story is nearing its end, but I will tell you that it is not and that things are going to get much worse. Stay tuned.**


	6. A Hero Returns

**I deeply apologise to all of the readers and story followers who have been waiting for me to update this story with a new chapter for so very long a time. Your patience is now rewarded.**

* * *

Chapter 6 - A Hero Returns

No matter where one was in Bellwood, the tension was as rife as it was thick. The word had spread; in obsessively trying to prove that Charmcaster's love for Ben was false, Gwen Tennyson had crossed too far over the line. The entire community of Plumbers living in the town limits or in one of the smaller towns nearby were shocked with the news of the beloved and respected red-headed heroine having held four people and one creature against their will and turning one of them into a mind slave. Naturally, of course, they all initially chose to disbelieve it, until they heard an iteration from one of the two people who definitely would never have said a single word against Gwen before: Kevin.

The only other person they could trust to confirm it implicitly for them, Ben, was unreachable. After the eventful shopping trip with his mother where the possessed Kai had kissed him, Ben had gone home and locked himself away in his bedroom, utterly broken and shattered by the depths of his cousin's betrayal. Noone was surprised by his reaction; out of everyone in their generation of Plumbers' members, he had known Gwen the longest and the best.

Sandra privately knew that there was more to it than that, remembering back to him telling her he was afraid that Gwen was going to go overboard, a fear she likewise had come to share, a fear that was seemingly now brought to life. Weary and overstressed from the revelation of what Gwen had done and having to answer every phone call from a friend asking if Ben was okay, she retired to the living room, sitting down in her reclining armchair and allowed herself to think.

Maybe she could have done things differently; after all, Ben had informed her quite a few times before of his suspicion that there might be a little trouble with Gwen once he let her know about his and Hope's relationship. A little, she reiterated, emphasising the two words with a level of disdain that would signify to anyone that her use of the pair to describe how things had happened was most definitely an understatement at present.

The family had practically been torn asunder. All too easily, Sandra recalled hearing the stunned voice of her brother-in-law Frank when he had contacted her on the phone after Julie had brought Gwen home imprisoned within Ship. Natalie, as usual, was making matters worse for everyone by blatantly denying that her smart, intelligent and mature daughter could ever have committed the crimes she was being accused of and instead blamed it all on Kevin's so-called bad influence, and later on snapped at Julie when the latter defended Kevin. The ongoing outbursts culminated with Natalie demanding that Julie order Ship to release Gwen. Julie refused, which was met by Natalie forcing her to leave the house.

Sandra had grumbled at learning of this. Natalie was always so annoyingly stubborn, hard-headed and high strung in nature that her very personality led to aggravating behaviours like having an incredibly high opinion of others and thinking she had the full sole right to running everything at home and deciding whatever Frank and Gwen did in life, which was why Sandra had been so furious when after Frank had finished with telling her everything that had occurred, Natalie had had the nerve to grab the phone off of him and loudly shouted at her to get Ben to speak to her.

Right now, Sandra felt what she had said to Natalie in the heat of the moment could have been handled better and with lesser volume, but at the time she had the memory of Ben and Kai explaining everything to her, including the incident outside the grocery store, and also the conversation between Ben and Kevin after her son's friend had arrived at the mall to check if he and Kai were all right fresh on her mind. Sandra moaned, propping her elbow up on the soft comfortable arm of her chair to grip the side of her face between three of her fingers. She closed her eyes, about to fall into the sleep her tired body so clearly desired, when her ears perked up in response to a familiar trundling noise.

She started, leaping to her feet upon recognising the running motor of an old RV, and rushed over to the front door. Throwing it open with a single thrust, her sight flew to the roadside where the Rustbucket had only just parked with its owner now stepping out of it, dressed in his Plumbers uniform.

Sandra breathed out a long-held sigh of relief that she had no idea she had.

Max Tennyson had come home at last.

 **:*:**

Max listened calmly to his daughter-in-law's every word as Sandra led him back inside the house and as he followed her into the kitchen where she prepared a pot of coffee and set two mugs on the counter. He showed little emotion as she poured the hot liquid into the mugs whilst she was telling him about the situation from earlier in the day, and he never spoke a word as she blended a short stream of caramel syrup, two spoonfuls of brown sugar and a dollop of whipped cream into one and pushed it toward him. He ignored the flavoursome scent of his favourite brew, a mask of seriousness etching further and further onto his face. An understanding Sandra turned her eyes to the other mug, adding in lactose-free milk, one spoonful of raw sugar and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Bringing it to her lips, she inhaled the rising steam and concluded her account of events.

Grimly, Max broke his silence. "And Ben? How is he?"

"He put on a strong front for Kai and for when he spoke to Kevin," Sandra sighed greatly. "But when we got home, he changed. It was like his life had left him, like he lost all his joy. He went up to his room without a sound and he hasn't come back down at all." She lowered her coffee mug to rest on the countertop, frowning sadly. "I shouldn't be surprised. Ever since you brought them back from the summer trip seven years ago, they've been more like a brother and sister than cousins."

Max nodded, crossing his arms. "I know, which is why I think there may be something else that's going on."

"What do you mean?" Sandra asked, glancing at him curiously.

Max took his mug and drank a third of the coffee down. "I won't deny that Gwen has her moments, but never something of today's scale."

"There's a first time for everything, Max."

"Maybe, but there has to be something. Even at the worst of times, Gwen listened to reason before taking a serious action like she did."

Sandra shook her head slowly. "I don't care," she spoke roughly. "The only thing I see is right now, and right now she's hurting Ben. That needs to stop. Now."

"It will," Max promised. "The Magistrata's allowed me to take the case, as long as I keep it objective."

Sandra closed her eyes again, almost immediately spotting what he had left out in that sentence. "You need to talk to Ben, don't you?"

Max nodded. "I know he won't be up to it, but it's important to have his side of the story."

Sandra growled in irritation, slamming her mug down. Clenching her teeth together, she hissed, "Fine. But I want one thing absolutely clear."

"Yes?"

"I know what you've done before. Whenever Ben or Gwen got in trouble with the law, you always managed to sweep it completely under the carpet. And with Kevin, you made that deal so he could get time off for good behaviour during his sentence in the Null Void."

Max's eyes narrowed, noticing the implied accusation in her tone and words. He slugged down the rest of his coffee and firmly placed the emptied mug on the counter. "What is it you're saying, Sandra?"

"That you shouldn't forget a couple of things while you're carrying on with your investigation. She did this. Gwen _chose_ to do this. She betrayed us, betrayed you, the Plumbers, her friends, her family. And she betrayed Ben," Sandra replied stiffly. "What am I saying, Max? I'm saying this time you don't treat her as your granddaughter but as an arrested criminal."

"I am," Max spoke, a low growling undertone echoing in his voice. "But I am going to give her the chance to explain herself."

"Then you're wasting your time."

Max pulled away from the counter. He knew from the way she was speaking to him that there was nothing more he could say to allay her anger; it was obvious that she was immovable in her position on Gwen.

"I'll be going up to talk to Ben now," he retorted quietly.

 **:*:**

All the facts, all the wishes for everything to have gone better than what they were, all of his worst fears about Gwen not coming to terms with the truth; they were coming to life and rolling around in his head in a violently turbulent circle. The events of the past day alone were just far too nightmarish for Ben to process. Although Kai and Kevin had both given him well-detailed descriptions, it was still difficult for him to imagine the real Gwen taking on such extreme actions that made her strongly resemble the counterpart of her he had been envisioning in his dreams.

Ben sighed, plagued by the memory of how determined she had appeared in those dreams. Looking out his bedroom window, he thanked whatever deity that was listening in to his unspoken thoughts that Gwen had been stopped before she could have taken things even further and that Hope was not around to be a witness to the stuff that already did happen.

A knock on the door shook him abruptly from his musings, and he rolled over on his bed to face it.

"Come in," he spoke with a dry crack emanating from within his throat. In answer to him, the door was opened and Max stepped into the room. A tired relieved smile split across Ben's face.

"Oh. Hey Grandpa."

"Hello Ben," Max greeted, approaching his grandson with caution. "How are you feeling?"

Ben's smile curved downwards as he sat up. "Bad," he responded. "I keep going over everything, wondering where I went wrong."

"You didn't. Instead of keeping your relationship with Hope a continued secret, which would likely have made Gwen more furious once she found out, you brought it out into the open and told her."

Ben shuddered. The idea that Gwen could have acted much more worse and angry than how she had been acting recently was something he really did not want to think about. The same thought occurred to Max, making him decide to cut to the chase.

"Ben. The Plumbers asked me to investigate this," he said, placing his hand gingerly on Ben's shoulder. "I know it's going to be hard, it'll be hard for me to hear it, but I need you to tell me everything that happened from the day you told Gwen about you and Hope."

 **:*:**

Ben told Max everything. The day all of this started, how Gwen had demanded he break up with Hope and threatened to put him through hell if he didn't. Yesterday at Mr. Smoothies, where he had been met by Julie and she informed him of Gwen's plans. Today, when he was approached by the possessed Kai and forcibly kissed by her, the apparent breaking of the spell and him learning from her and later Kevin that Gwen had gone entirely rogue the previous evening holding the two of them, Ship, Julie and Mr. Yamamoto prisoner. He even recounted the dreams and all of the fears he had been carrying lately.

Max first listened attentively, watching for any hint of his theory about Gwen attacking Ben and Hope's relationship for an alternate reason other than suspecting that her old nemesis was up to something. Then, when Ben started to speak of what had transpired in the past twenty four hours, emotion broke out onto his face by the way of a frown. He cringed visibly as he was told the second-hand account of Gwen trapping Kai and putting the hypnosis spell on her. He trembled with horror with the revelation of Gwen luring Kevin and restraining him. He closed his eyes in regret while hearing the moments of Gwen's own capture and felt immeasurable guilt at not coming back to Bellwood fast enough as he took in every word Ben used to describe his dreams.

When Ben finished, Max was quiet and downcast, his grieving eyes barely moving. Then, with a groan, he lifted his head up to face his grandson again. "Alright," he sighed. "Are you sure that's everything?"

Ben gave him a single nod.

Max acknowledged it, withdrawing his hand from Ben's shoulder and exhaled in a deep sense of failure. "Okay then. I'll be back soon, I need to go talk to everyone else, including Gwen. In the meantime, I suggest you go join your mom downstairs, she's worried about you. Your dad should be back home shortly as well."

Ben gradually raised himself off his bed, putting his feet on the floor. With a brief smile, Max turned away, heading for the door, stopping only after Ben spoke again.

"Grandpa?"

"Yeah."

"What's going to happen to Gwen?"

Max did not circle back around to face him and give him an answer. Instead he lowered his eyes down to the floor, overcome by a sudden feeling that he might not be able to help his granddaughter after all. "I don't know," he said finally. "Gwen's an official member of the Plumbers, and you know the Plumbers don't like it when one of our own goes against the code. They'll come down hard on her unless they are given a justifiable reason for her behaviour, like how Kevin loses his mind every time he absorbed powers from the Omnitrix."

"And hers of protecting me from any harm my girlfriend might cause is not going to be one, is it?"

Max shook his head. "No, mainly because of that operative word, might. And you and I and everyone else we know around here knew that wasn't going to happen in the present circumstances."

"Yeah," Ben agreed solemnly.

"So, so far, the best thing for Gwen to do is to admit what she's done as wrong before I officially conclude my investigation. If she does that, any punishment that they give her will be less severe."

He heard Ben sigh loudly from behind him. "Knowing Gwen, she won't do that unless she can see the truth about me and Hope."

Max scowled with understanding empathy. "That's what I'm afraid of."

 **:*:**

As he drove around Bellwood, gaining account after account of Gwen's actions, Max found two things always the same with listening to each version; first, that he was given great pain in having to hear every treacherous move Gwen had made with her obsession and in seeing the intense anger, shock and betrayal in every person's eyes, and second, that he had the continuous thought afterwards that maybe another Plumber should have been tasked with the investigation instead of him.

Kevin had been the worst one to talk to besides Ben. The young man had originally been at a loss for what to say and do, but Max was sympathetic in not asking him why. He knew, when it came to love, bias was a hard thing to avoid and the horrible truth a torture to confess, something that he himself was also facing now in judging his granddaughter and, if it came to the worst, was also something to be faced again by everyone in the near future.

Max made the turn at the intersection and headed onto the last stretch of road before pulling up at the last place he had to visit before returning to Carl and Sandra's house. Steeling himself for the reception he was expecting, he got out of the Rustbucket and walked up the driveway and along the short path through the yard to the door, which was opened for him the moment he had stepped in close to knock.

His other son, Frank, stood behind the frame, holding the door open with one hand.

"Hi dad."

"Frank."

"I suppose you're here to talk to Gwen."

"Yep. Anything I should know about after Julie got kicked out?"

"Just prepare for a tongue lashing from Nat."

"Noted."

Frank opened the door wider for him to pass through. Max moved inside, traversing around the corner into the living room. There, Natalie rose from the sofa in a huff. Max fought against the instinct to respond in kind, recognising that she was still in the irritated mood Sandra and Julie had described.

"Max," she acknowledged his arrival. "Finally, a person with some sense."

This time, Max answered back. "Sense," he repeated, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.

Natalie halted, her thin eyebrows furrowing as her cross expression started to flourish back into life. "Oh, don't tell me you believe all that nonsense about Gwen."

"Whether I believe it or not doesn't matter. The incident was reported, and I need to conduct a thorough and objective investigation."

"Investigation?!" Natalie shrieked furiously. "My daughter would never do any of those things!"

"That's what you believe, Natalie. Look, I know you want nothing but the best in life for Gwen. So do I, but I cannot just simply ignore what she's done."

"She has not done _ANYTHING!_ YOU ORDER HER RELEASE, THIS INSTANT!"

"I have testimonies from Sandra, Ben, Kevin, Julie, Kai and Mr. Yamamoto," Max argued unabatingly. "They have all said the same thing. She has done those things, Natalie, and if I were any other Plumber, with that in mind, I would arrest her right here and now without giving her a chance to say something in her defence."

"Then give her that chance!"

"I am," Max glared. "But if you're hoping because of that that everything is going to turn out in your favour, don't. If Gwen doesn't see and accept responsibility for what she's done, then there'll be nothing I can do."

"But-

"Honey," Frank intervened before his wife could find the strength to launch another tirade, coming to Natalie's side and grasping her arm in support. "It's best to let dad do his work. We're not helping Gwen any by standing in his way."

Natalie glanced sadly at him, returning his gesture by gripping his hand. The fight tumbled out from her as she leaned into her husband's side, the anger she had been expressing just before surrendering and changing into a pleading gaze. Frank turned to Max.

"She's upstairs in her room," he said.

"Please help her," Natalie broke into a sob. "I don't want to see my daughter put in prison."

For the second time that evening, Max faltered in giving someone an answer about what could happen to Gwen, this time because he knew that Gwen going to jail had a strong chance of occurring with all of the evidence he had collated. An untested resolve in his eyes, he chose not to speak and walked toward and up the stairs, leaving his son and daughter-in-law in silence. Never hesitating in the steps that he took, he reached the second floor and moved over to Gwen's bedroom door. He stopped in front of it for a moment, wondering if he should have the decency to knock; a guilty conscience suggested to him he should. Giving the door a small, grudging two-beat rap, he entered.

He did not have to venture in far. Trapped inside the containment suit Ship had taken the form of, Gwen stood in the centre of the room, staring at him through the visor, her mouth open with shock and her eyes wide with fear. Max impassively closed the door behind him.

"Ship?"

The Mechamorph blipped in answer.

"Let her go."

Ship blurted back at him in a series of surprised beeps.

"I need to talk to her. Let her go," Max replied sternly.

Ship acquiesced to his command with a reluctant positive response. In the blink of an eye, he retained his smaller, original puppy-like form, flinging himself free from Gwen's body and shuffled along the floor into a nearby corner. Gwen gasped hoarsely as she gulped in a breath of air, her arms springing apart from the restricting hold the suit had had on her. She blinked, noting her newfound liberty, and looked at Max with joyful abandon.

"Grandpa. I need your help. Charmcaster, she-

Max raised his hand in a stopping motion, interrupting her. Gwen stalled, the glee falling away from her and giving way to a suspicious wary feeling as she saw the disappointed expression on his face.

"Gwen," he spoke. "Do you understand what you've done?"

"I know it looks bad, Grandpa, but I had no choice," she reasoned. "Charmcaster's got a spell on Ben that's making him think he's in love with her, and everyone else is believing it's the real deal for his sake."

"No, Gwen," Max overrode her. "It is the real deal. If you remember, I volunteered to go on that mission with him and Charmcaster to rescue Hex when you refused to. I was there. I watched them fall for each other."

Gwen threw hers arms up in bitter frustration. "Then she must have cast the spell when you weren't looking."

"Gwen!" Max snapped.

Gwen froze, gaping at how unmoved he was appearing to be. She lowered her arms, letting them fall limply to her side. A sad incredulous look of disbelief and betrayal crossed over her face. "Grandpa Max, please. Not you too," she begged of him.

Max's hard eyes glistened with tears. "Stop thinking about it having to do with magic and ask yourself why you are really so against Ben having a relationship with Charmcaster. It may be the only way you can get out of this with a clean slate."

"There is no other reason, Grandpa. It must be a spell. It's got to be a spell. It just can't be real," Gwen spoke with a confident assurance.

"I don't believe you," Max argued. "You would never act the way you did today without solid proof, which you don't have a shred of. There has to be another reason, something else, some underlying reason you have for not wanting Ben and Charmcaster together. Is it because she's your rival?"

"No."

"Is it because you kept giving her chances to change, to be a good person, and she never took any of them?"

"No."

"Then why, Gwen?"

"I don't trust her. She's not good for Ben."

"Why?"

Gwen moved her mouth to speak, but then just as quickly shut it and closed her eyes, turning away from him and crossing her arms.

"What are you trying to get me to say?"

"I'm trying to help you," Max answered, softening his voice. "At the end of the day, I have to arrest you and turn you over to the Plumbers. With all the evidence and testimonies I've got, I don't have any choice but that. But if we can give them a justifiable reason for your actions, we might be able to get you off or a reduction in whatever sentence they give you. In the past twenty four hours, you've broken the Plumbers' Code to the second degree, you've held five sentient lifeforms against their will, and you abused your own natural abilities to enslave a person's mind and body to do as you commanded. You can see how serious those things are, can't you? If you can just tell me the real reason why-

"Why is protecting Ben not good enough?"

He paused at her sudden and sharply spoken interruption. "I'm sorry," he said, raising both eyebrows with a triggered sense of danger.

"I said, why is protecting Ben not good enough," Gwen spoke more forcefully.

"Protecting him from what, Gwen?"

"Her. Charmcaster."

Max groaned. "What part of the truth don't you understand? Charmcaster, Hope, is not a threat to anyone anymore, especially to Ben."

"You're wrong, Grandpa. I actually understand it all completely."

Gwen quickly rounded back on him, confronting him with a fierce angry glare. Max threw himself back to the door, startled. His fearful eyes gazed back into Gwen's.

Both of her eyes were now flushed with pink mana energy. Max felt an awful chill, realising the awful truth behind it. Her magic was no longer disabled.

"It's one of two things," Gwen darkly went on. "Either she cast a spell on you as well to blind you to the real truth, or you were just the first one to believe the lie."

"Gwen," Max said, attempting to be placating. "No."

"Aunt Sandra, probably Uncle Carl as well. Julie. Kai. Kevin," her voice choked a bit while she spoke her boyfriend's name. "And now you. All of you would believe an obvious lie, a trick, just to see Ben happy after how crushed he had been after he and Julie broke up."

"Don't do this. You're only making it worse for yourself."

Gwen narrowed her pink-filled eyes at him. Near-invisible spheres of her energy glowed around her hands as she raised her arms to a defensive height. With a silent order over her own form, she levitated into the air, declaring, "No!"

"You, all of you, are making it worse for me. Forcing me to make these decisions when you're the ones failing to see the reality. But you know what, I don't care, because I will save Ben. By doing what I must."

Max's saddened eyes shook alongside his upset emotions one last time before they shifted to a resolved-and-ready glare. If that's how it's going to be, he thought, then he will do what he had to do as well.

He acted, springing his hand to the blaster pistol holstered at his waist. Gwen was the faster, shooting a blast of mana from her left hand. Max grunted as the blast hit him in the chest, forcing him into and through the door, and leaving him in a winded heap out in the hall.

Ship jumped out of his corner, leaping upwards to form into the suit to contain Gwen again. She turned upon him, shooting and throwing him into the wall. Colliding into the hard surface with a splat, Ship droned out an electrified moan as he slipped down the floor in the form of a liquid puddle.

The click of a readied blaster caught Gwen's attention, distracting her from seeing if her former prison would be retaliating or not. Max was back up on his knees, with his weapon pointed at her. Frank and Natalie hurried into view from downstairs, the two of them stopping to look at their daughter, their eyes and mouths widened with terror.

"Gwendolyn Tennyson," Max proclaimed firmly, ignoring the two arrivals. "By the authority of the Plumbers, you are under arrest for the charges of second-degree intergalactic treason, five counts of unlawful abduction of sentient beings and holding them against their will, the abuse of your natural alien ability, assaulting an officer, and resistance of arrest."

"Come quietly."

Gwen responded, throwing another blast from her left hand. With her right, she charged her mana and sent a prolonged beam cannoning towards the outer wall. The blast struck Max's pistol, melting it into slag. The beam met the wall, blowing it apart and spilling rubble into the front yard below.

"I will, one day, when I finish what I set out to do. And maybe when I have done that, all of you will apologise for never believing me."

Facing her grandpa and her parents with total conviction, she turned away from them and soared through the air and out the large gap she had made in the wall, and sped onwards to the sky as soon as her lips tasted the freedom of outside air.

Max shut his eyes in regret as she flew far enough away for her to blend into the darkening evening sky, and just as rapidly as he felt and recognised the feeling he had as regret, he angrily shoved it to the side and staggered to his feet.

"Ship," he called over to the black-and-green puddle.

The Mechamorph reformed into its normal shape, answering him with a short yip.

"Get back to Julie's house and tell her, Kai and Kevin what just happened and that there's gonna be trouble."

Ship responded again and bounded out through the hole in the wall, transforming himself into a toy racing car and zoomed off down the street as he made contact with the ground. Max turned, glancing at Frank and Natalie. Both were in shock, holding each other in their arms and with tears sliding down their stricken faces, their eyes blankly staring out in the direction that Gwen had gone.

"I'm sorry, but I have no choice now," he told them, drawing their attention to him.

Frank nodded sadly. "We understand, dad, but please don't kill her."

Max scowled at his son. He and his wife had just seen what their daughter had done, heard what she was threatening to do, and yet they were still asking for promises in regards to Gwen's wellbeing. Choosing again not to give them a verbal answer, he strode quietly past them, nursing his chest injury, and stumbled down the stairs. In his mind, the decision was already made, made for him by Gwen. The time for talk was over now, and if Gwen was not willing to surrender, then it was time for action.

 **:*:**

Listening to his grandpa's suggestion to go downstairs to his mother instead of remaining in his bedroom alone and moping had turned out to be a good idea. Meeting her in the living room, Sandra had wordlessly hugged Ben in the hope of giving him comfort, something which he returned gratefully, and she guided him to sit down beside her on the sofa.

That was where Carl had found them when he had come back home from work, side by side, not saying a word to each other, with his wife's arm wrapped around their son's shoulders. Aware of the troubles Gwen had been making in the time since Ben had informed her he and Hope were in a relationship, he sighed and asked them what his niece had done this time. Sandra gave him the story, recounting Gwen holding everyone at the Yamamoto household prisoner and of her hypnotising and forcing Kai to approach Ben romantically. Stunned by all the things he was told, Carl took up the other side of the sofa next to Ben as a way to show his son that he was there to support him. Ben saw the motion as such, a smile slowly coming to form on his face.

The three of them sat there for a little while longer. Ben was beginning to show more outward signs of basking in his parents' love and care. His bright goofy grin was fast on its way of making it to its full length. His green eyes were glowing with renewed life. In fact his attitude was starting to become so positive that when the doorbell rang, he rose up to volunteer to get it. As he walked over to answer the door, Carl and Sandra too began to smile at the vital improvement of his mood.

Ben opened the door for the person waiting outside. For a single moment, that person was still, standing in the shadows of the night as if they wanted to keep their identity a quiet secret. Then the figure moved, falling and slumping forward, and beginning to spiral down to the ground. Ben kneeled quickly, catching the person in his arms.

Her unconscious face lolled into the light beaming from inside the house, casting her features into stark recognition. Ben's expression of worry for the person's physical state increased vividly into fear as panic crashed down upon him as the very familiar young woman's long silver hair spilled lifelessly to the floor and as he saw to his horror all the various afflicted cuts, burns and bruises that were spread over most of her body.

All of the happiness he had so far managed to recover was swept away from him as he screamed out his girlfriend's name.

"HOPE!"

* * *

 **Cliffhanger! I will have Chapter 7 up as soon as I possibly can.**


	7. Wounds

**Hello again, readers. My apologies for taking a long while to update the story, but between periods of writer's block and increased hours at my current job, I haven't been able to write as much as I would like. However, I aim to deliver this story in its intended complete form no matter what. So, without further wait, here's Chapter Seven.**

* * *

Chapter 7 - Wounds

Hex was in his library, diligently reading a thickly-sized history book based on twelfth-century China when the telephone rang. Startlingly disrupted from his research by the shrill noise, he cursed that he ever agreed to have such an irritating modern invention installed in his home after Charmcaster had started dating Benjamin, all so his niece could keep in contact with her boyfriend whenever she was visiting Earth. Muttering under his breath that he should have just purchased one of those mobile phones for her instead, he pushed himself up and away from his chair, leaving the book behind on the armside table, and went to answer the device.

Plucking it from the receiver, he held it to his ear and spoke, "Hello."

"Hex!"

"Benjamin," Hex replied slowly, anticipating the likeliest reason for the young man calling. "I must apologise. Hope is not here, she's back in Ledgerdomain."

"No she's not!" Ben cried. "She's here at my place!"

"What?" Hex exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief. "That's impossible. She has not come back through my portal."

"That doesn't matter! She's here, and she's wounded. Badly."

Cold terror ran through Hex as he sensed the fear in the last two words Ben had spoken.

Wounded. Badly.

Something had to have happened in Ledgerdomain, as he had long suspected it would, but something that was severe enough to make Charmcaster risk her life further by forcing herself through the boundary between dimensions without the use of an established portal, a dangerous act that could very well have killed her on its own. Hex's eyes narrowed as the consequences involved in his summation hit him.

"I shall be right there."

 **:*:**

Ben hung up the phone and returned hurriedly to Hope's side. His girlfriend was lying, prone and unmoving, along the length of the living room sofa with her head propped up on a cushion, being watched by his mother. Even now, Sandra was checking Hope's breathing and vital signs, alert for any drastic negative change in her health. Ben glanced around the room again; his dad had moved from guarding the front door to keeping a lookout through the window to see if anything monstrous or spectral had followed Hope there.

Conceding his dad had seen nothing alarming yet, he turned his gaze back to Hope as he knelt down on the floor. He felt his mother's eyes on him as he raised his hand to tenderly stroke Hope's face. A sudden rush of misery gripped him when she did not answer to his affection, bringing back the freshly-recent harsh memory of her losing consciousness on his doorstep and collapsing into his arms to rush through the annals of his mind. He remembered vividly his screaming of her name, his parents running toward them, their combined breaths of shock as they saw the number of wounds that Hope was suffering from, and how he had been gently coaxed by his parents to lift Hope up and take her to the sofa.

The memory of his mom checking Hope's pulse and breathing the first time was a little more hazy; Ben was sure he had heard his mother say that it did not look good, but as for right after that, he drew a complete blank until the moment that he made the decision to call Hex. How long did it take for him to make that decision, he wondered. Obviously not long as neither of his parents pointed out to him how hesitant he was being. The memory regained full clarity from there as it took him to when he was at the phone and dialling the number, something that now really did not surprise Ben; he had felt a lot of impatience in waiting for the call to connect and for the sorceror to answer, an experience that was far too stark for him to forget easily. It was Hope's life on the line after all.

Having recalled all of that, Ben prayed inwardly that Hope was not beyond her uncle's help.

"Um, Ben?" Carl asked nervously.

"Yeah."

"Hope's uncle. What does he look like?"

Ben bit his cheek; he had forgotten that his parents hadn't ever met Hex yet. "Very pale skin. Red and black cape and hood, with thin black clothing. Black and yellow eyes. Carries a staff with him at all times. Why?"

"Uh, cos someone fitting that description just appeared out of nowhere on our front lawn. And he's running to the door."

"Good," Ben sighed with relief. "Let him in."

At his son's word, Carl stepped over to the door and pulled it open. Never once breaking in his pace, Hex brushed past him, entering the house. His calculating eyes darted into the living room, where he saw his niece lying unconscious on the sofa with Ben and Sandra tending to her. He stiffened as he took her injuries in, a single shocked gasp escaping from his mouth. With a sense of deliberation, he charged forward. Ben clambered out of his way, allowing him to stand where he had been kneeling. Hex looked down at Hope, worry and fear dominating his face as he examined her wounds in closer detail.

"Magic," he confirmed quietly, slipping down to his knees. "Oh child. Why did you bring yourself to this?"

"Can you help her?"

Hex turned to Ben. Calmly, he took in the boy's shaking worried eyes and concerned face and answered, "I can. But there is something else that must be required."

"What?"

"The first thing," Hex explained, " is that I can heal her but her recuperation will be very fragile, so fragile that while I am helping her, it is important that she must not move under any circumstances. In order to prevent that, I have to place a strong calming enchantment on her beforehand. The issue with that is, when I turn my magic to the healing process, that enchantment will grow weak without my attention and it will fade completely." He closed his eyes, drawing in air to make the request he was aiming for. "But it will have a stronger chance of holding if I cast it on you as well."

Ben's fearful expression flickered, changing into a firm stare of determination. "What do I need to do?"

Hex rose, climbing to his feet again. His eyes flashed with a bright white light, quickly returning to their normal shade of black and yellow as he cautiously muttered an incantation aloud. The same white light emanated around Hope and, slowly, her inert form was raised into the air. Ben watched, mesmerised by how beautiful she was appearing floating in mid-air despite the wounds that marred her body. Hex suppressed a knowing smirk at the obvious attraction Ben was showing toward his niece and spoke to him again.

"Sit down where her head will lie."

Ben shook his head roughly and attempted to hide the regretful blush that displayed how taken in he had been by his girlfriend's natural beauty. Following Hex's instruction, he slid into the seat on the sofa, removing the cushion as he did so, and nodded to Hex that he was prepared. Recognising that Ben was indeed settled comfortably, Hex accepted the response and directed his eyes to his levitating niece. Mouthing another incantation, he commanded the spell he had surrounding Hope's body to lower her back down to the sofa. He, Carl and Sandra gazed on as she descended, her form coming to land on the soft surface with her head resting on Ben's lap.

"Now before I cast the enchantment," Hex resumed speaking, pulling everyone's attention to him. "Benjamin, you must remain calm every moment until Charmcaster awakes. No panic. No stress. No fear and worry."

"Got it," Ben nodded.

"You do any of those things and the enchantment will break quickly."

"I understand."

"Not yet you don't," Hex remanded. "The second and final requirement is for you to never leave her side, for if you do…

"The enchantment breaks," Ben guessed.

"Correct. So no, as you say it, going hero. You stay and remain calm, which means," Hex carried on, turning grimly to Carl and Sandra. "Mr and Mrs Tennyson, it falls to you and I to act as protectors if something or someone dangerous has pursued my niece here."

Carl and Sandra spared a look between them, silently exchanging words. They decided in two seconds. Sandra left Ben and Hope, moving out of the room and into the kitchen; everyone heard her rifling through the drawers and cupboards and were amused when she came back in with a steel broom handle in one hand and a rolling pin in the other. Carl strode over to the other side of the room, to where he had been keeping his father's old blaster hanging, and he took the weapon into his hands. Charging the power pack and arming the mechanism to fire a lethal dose of plasma, Carl eyed Hex resolutely and said, "Nobody hurts our family on our watch."

Hex smirked at the reply, acknowledging both parents' dedication. As Carl turned away to survey the outside, Hex rounded back to Ben. "Remember what I said. Now, are you ready?"

Ben exhaled in a quiet, low breath, contemplating to himself the difficulty of the task he had volunteered to handle. No moving was fine; he could do that. Being there for Hope as Hex would heal her was also easy. Remaining calm, unstressed and without fear however would be hard for him as he was often told he behaved very emotionally in times of crisis, or worse tried to mitigate a bad situation with jokes.

The most arduous thing of all though, abstaining from going hero, especially when there could be a reason to like the potential danger that might have followed Hope, would open a floodgate that would leave him overwhelmed and drowning in guilt as someone anywhere in Bellwood or the world was likely in trouble, screaming his name for him to come help them. Worse still, he noted darkly, if Hope's attacker was to arrive as Hex was suspecting, he was to be forced to let his parents fight the threat alone.

But there was someone right here who needed him, he reminded himself as he stared down at Hope. As his eyes centred fully on her face, all the scenarios he was thinking of halted and slithered away to hide from the new, brighter feeling Ben was having. This was for her. This was for Hope.

Ben nodded for Hex to begin, stating his commitment with a solidly spoken single word. "Yes."

Hex put his staff down and spread his hands outward. "Then calm yourself and relax. When you are, keep it that way." Ben nodded again, following the command by regarding Hope and warmly cupping his hand to her cheek. All form of emotion except his devotion to her, he gradually locked away as he focused upon his task.

Sensing Ben vacating all of the conflict swarming within him, Hex turned his own attention to summoning the magic he needed. In his mind, he reached into the metaphysical realm, journeying to find a pathway to connect with Hope's spirit and soul. Arriving at an avatar shape of her and of Ben in the exact same positions they were in reality. Hex brought his power forth, calling to Hope. A hole opened up in her spirit form, allowing him passage. In both this place and the physical plane, he bade his spell to enter, speaking the words for the enchantment in a soft, naturally soothing manner.

" _Ben esse apud vos modo. Maxime tranquillitas. Maxime tranquillitas_."

Hope writhed in Ben's embrace for a scarce moment, then as if she had recognised Ben's presence, she lifted her left hand from where it had been lying limp on the sofa and moved it over her body to curl her fingers into a grip around the hand Ben had at her cheek. Quietly, she smiled.

Hex exhaled. The calming enchantment was working. He could put his focus to the more imperative work. Eyeing Hope's form, he re-examined her injuries, guiding his magic to circulate through her to inform him of the extent of the damage done to her body. He came at last to the realisation that none of the wounds would prove fatal so as long as he mended them both efficiently and effectively.

Issuing out another long breath, he had his magic transform into another spell as he began to initiate the healing ritual.

" _Sana eam_."

A blurry white outline came into being, crafting itself to circle perfectly around Hope and tightening to her skin until it had adhered all of its shape to her. Ben held in all the instinctive panic that had been born in him when the outline had appeared, knowing from noticing that Hex had not given into alarm that this was part of the spell he had been meaning to enact.

" _Redige sui illius ardens_."

Flashes of light matching the colour of the outline splashed all over Hope. Ben's eyes widened as he saw wherever there had been burns on her body were now morphing to become clear, untouched skin.

" _Hinc eius carnes contusione defatigatus_."

The flashes of white moved to covering the bruises. Ben, Carl and Sandra watched, mystified, as the blotches progressed from their sickly-looking black, through the various stages of purple, to red, to pink, to a light brown, until finally there was nothing to suggest that Hope had never been bruised at all.

" _Signa plagas eius_."

Ben blinked suddenly with horror, wishing that he was hearing things. Did Hex's voice sound like it was starting to strain? No, he had to ignore that. Calm and relaxed, he repeated in his head, calm and relaxed. He forced himself to keep looking at Hope as Hex continued his ministrations. Before his eyes, all the cuts and scratches, the only things left that were evidence she had suffered in battle, were closing. Every wound was gradually being knitted over as the skin reattached bit by bit. For Ben, this seemed to be the longest part by far, waiting as each mark appeared to be repairing itself, leaving faded pale lines and curves in their place. But even when they were all magically sealed, the job was still not done. Sweat poured down Hex's face, proving to Ben that he may in fact have heard right, as the sorceror concentrated laboriously on the lines and curves. When they disappeared from view, he moved on to the next part.

" _Implete ea vita navitas_."

The white outline brightened in intensity, taking on a more definite appearance, glowing so vividly that it made Hope look like she was surrounded with an angelic aura. Hope moved, nearly startling Ben and everyone as her lips parted to release a pained cry for air, but she soon settled back calmly as her lungs drew fresh oxygen into them. Hex sighed; it was now far too obvious to everyone in the room apart from him from the sweat matting his creased forehead and the tired moan on his breath that he was getting worn down. He himself ignored the signs, applying more of his energy.

" _Sana eam_ … _revertetur…ad eius plenam…salutem_ ," Hex heaved, pushing the words out of his throat. The aura cast over and around Hope glimmered one final time, before eventually dulling into nothing, leaving her body clean of any injury. Hex relaxed, raising his hand once more. " _Maxime tranquillitas_."

A slight moan escaped from Hope. She stirred for a moment and then fell back into a motionless sleep. Hex smiled, nodding with approval, and he looked to Ben. "She will be alright now," he spoke wearily. "But she needs to rest and recover. Let her sleep some more."

Ben nodded with understanding, turning his eyes back to Hope. Hex staggered over to Carl's armchair, groaning as he called his staff back to his hand. Sandra abandoned her weapons, coming to him as he limped within reach of the chair and helped him to sit down.

"Thank you, Mrs Tennyson."

Sandra shook her head, smiling gratefully at him. "No. Thank you, Hex," she whispered, glancing over at Ben and Hope. "If the worst had happened to Hope, it would have destroyed Ben."

"Hmm," Hex frowned, leaning back into the chair and moving his eyes to also gaze at the young couple. "I have a strong feeling that it would be the same if the situation occurred in the reverse manner."

Sandra eyed him with concern. He stared back at her, saying, "After she lost her parents, Hope kept her emotions guarded with a strength like that of an impenetrable shield. She'd never open up to anyone, not even to me. It was a difficult thing for me to endure through the years, never once seeing her make a genuine smile." He sighed, his eyes shifting to Ben and Hope again. "There were times when I reacted badly to her attitude, times that I wish I could have handled in a better, more patient way. And then of course, there was that boy, Michael. When he broke her heart, I truly thought that was it, that she'd never be happy again. And then - - -

"There was Ben," Sandra concluded.

Hex nodded. "When she told me of her feelings for him, I scarcely dared to believe it, but there it was. Inside that young woman in love, I could finally see the niece I've always wanted back."

"And when they started their relationship?"

"I could not have been happier," Hex said, a smile forming on his thin lips. His mood changed; his vision began to blur. He covered his eyes with one hand and let out a groan.

"Are you alright?" Sandra asked him.

Lowering his hand, Hex replied, "Yes. I just need to rest. Replenish the energy I used in healing Hope."

"That did seem more long-winded than Gwen's usual spells," Sandra chuckled.

Hex rolled his eyes, smirking in amusement. "Healing, life-preserving and restorative spells are the most powerful, and therefore the most costly, forms of magic. It is not wise to tinker with such power by abbreviating the mystic language."

"Oh," Sandra blushed. "In that case, you go ahead and rest. Carl and I can look after things for a while."

Hex considered her offer. "Very well. But wake me when Hope regains consciousness."

Sandra was about to give him a verbal answer when the phone rang, interfering with her response. She first turned in recognition of the noise, but she moved back around to give Hex a nod. Hex nodded his head in return before lowering his chin to his chest and shutting his eyes. Sandra walked out into the kitchen, feeling the eyes of her husband and her son on her back as she left the room. She picked the receiver up from the cradle and brought it to her ear.

"Hello."

She paused, waiting for the caller to reply. When she did so, she perked up. "Oh, hello Kevin. It's a good thing you called because we've had some trouble here." She stopped again. This caused Ben to wince; that meant one of the two things. First was the caller had just rudely interrupted and she would scoff loudly. His mother did not scoff, which meant it had to be the other thing.

Bad news.

Ben leaned his head back to get a careful glimpse of his mother through one of the slots in the wall and gauged her reactions. There was her concerned stare first; a downward curve of her eyebrows, edging close to the sockets. The expression changed afterwards to a shocked one where her eyes trembled, the brows rose sharply up to her hairline, and her lower lip spasmed, revealing her teeth. And then, when it appeared that Kevin had gotten to the most important part of his message, came the response that Ben realised only just then was the one he feared he was going to see the most.

Sandra raised her spare hand up towards her cheek. Her mouth fell open in complete shock, paired with a low, raspy gasp that matched with the level of the runaway emotions she had been experiencing. Then, as the impact of what she had been told sunk in, she stopped in mid-reaction. She closed her eyes, bringing her eyebrows back to their normal height. Her jaw relaxed as she took a breath and exhaled coolly. Her spare hand slipped, curling down to rest by her waist.

She opened her eyes again and replied words that struck Ben with grief. "No, Gwen hasn't come here yet, thank goodness. Has anyone else seen any sign of her?" The answer must have been a negative one as she followed that up with another question. "Who else is out looking for her?" As if she could tell her son was watching her, Sandra turned around to face Ben as Kevin gave her the details. The contemplative stare she was wearing was one Ben knew all too well; it was the same face she made whenever she was considering a hard-to-choose decision. She resolved it fast though, as she put all focus in replying.

"Kevin, I want you to listen, and to tell Max everything I say. Hope's here at the house right now, and when she showed up, she was sustaining some very bad injuries. Hex said that magic was the cause. It may not have been Gwen but I don't want to leave it to chance, not with the mood she's currently in." She listened to the comment Kevin was making. "Yeah," she spoke again. "I wouldn't want her to know Hope's here either. Please let us know when you've got her again. Thanks. Goodbye, Kevin."

She hung the phone back on the receiver. Returning to the living room, she groaned and shook her head miserably.

"Mom," Ben said, dragging her of her stress.

Sandra glanced at him and saw the struggle to stay calm in her son's eyes, and she steeled herself for what was about to occur.

"Ben. Remember you have to stay calm no matter what."

Ben tensed, coming instantly to the conclusion that Gwen had done something else terrible and in the process made things worse for herself. As he had before Hex initiated the healing process, he let all emotion slide out of him. With a composed voice, he asked the question that was on his mind.

"Mom, what has Gwen done now?"

 **:*:**

At the same time Ben posed the question to his mother in regards to the news of Gwen's aggressive escape, Kevin was asking himself a very similar one. Had Gwen really gone so far over the edge that she would actually attack Charmcaster without a sense of provocation? With all that had happened lately as well as what he had learned from Max's description of the escape, he was unsure. His girlfriend usually had a level head when it came to troubling situations, at least for those that did turn out to be troubling, but this was disturbingly different. Gwen had become temperamental, unreasonable, questionably manipulative and, worse, apparently deranged.

In other words, crazy, he thought in his head, knowing that even by putting that word to her, he had answered his own question. Gwen could have done it.

The memory of being held prisoner in Julie's house by Gwen threatened his concentration. Throwing it to the side, Kevin glanced out the windshield of his car, his concerned eyes darting in every possible direction in search for his wayward girlfriend. Seeing nothing once more, he switched his gaze over to the passenger he had in the back. Kai, also on the lookout for Gwen, had been steadily quiet since they started the search. Kevin sighed; he knew the reason for her silence.

Though Kai herself had chosen to wait and be patient until Max had concluded his investigation in spite of all that Gwen had magicked her into doing, Kai's grandfather was a different story. In an angered drive to see justice done, Wesley Green had applied to the Plumbers' Commission to have Gwen face trial. Kevin recalled how cold Kai informing him of that had made him feel; he, after all, had gone through the same process.

When the Plumbers on Earth were reactivated after the summer that Ben had first put on the Omnitrix, the newly established Commission chose to make an example of Kevin to show extra-terrestrial criminals as well as the terrestrial ones aware of alien life that Earth was no longer going to be a pushover planet.

The trial was the first thing, and in Kevin's experience, the worst. He was allowed into the courtroom without restraints, a fact that led him to think about an escape plan, until he was told that the room would be reinforced with an energy field while the trial was in session and that any attempt to escape would be held against him and he would be immediately handed a life sentence in the Null Void. Figuring that the governance of the Plumbers would likely ensure he remained in the Null Void for the rest of his life, for the first time since he had run away from home, Kevin surrendered to authority.

Inside the courtroom, he faced three Plumber officers, selected by the Commission to be his judges. All throughout the proceedings, he only ever experienced one, unfamiliar, sensation.

Fear.

The judges and the prosecution trialled him like an adult instead of a juvenile as he had been expecting. He moved his eyes warily to every face; their stern glares gave him the impression that he was going to end up in the Null Void for life after all. The prosecutor confirmed that feeling on his own part, suggesting that sentence to the tribunal as a fitting and appropriate punishment for such a repeat offender.

The lawyer the Commission appointed to defend Kevin then stepped in and said about things about Kevin that Kevin was positive he did not like being said about him. That he was a poor kid who suffered abuse from his stepfather. About how, to avoid further abuse and feeling that he had noone else to turn to after his mother refused to act against his stepfather, Kevin fled from his home and lived a horrible life on the streets where he and his own self-interest were the only things that mattered. And how that all of those events led to his wrongdoings, symbolising he was nothing more than a troubled child who had no idea how to form positive and meaningful relationships with other people, and that he required help and guidance instead of a punishment to remedy his problems. All that despite being the truth made Kevin furious enough to want to speak up, but his defender continued on from his speech by announcing a pair of statements from character witnesses to prove that point.

The first statement was from Kevin's mother. Kevin remembered how much he had gaped as her written words were recounted for the judges to hear. They were words he did not dare believe, words about her failure in her role and responsibility as a mother, her deep regret that she could have done more for him, and a wish to be given another chance when and if Kevin came home. Listening to the sincerity in which her mother had written the statement, Kevin had wept quietly. The tears did not last long however as the announcement of the identity behind the second statement rocked him.

It was from Max Tennyson.

Kevin stood, stunned, as Max's statement was read out, beginning with the revelation that the old man had worked with his late father in the Plumbers and that Max had lost contact with his fellow Plumbers' family until the day Ben tried to befriend Kevin. Max had recognised Kevin on that day and he went on to investigate what could have made Kevin turn out the way he was. He got his answers at the end of the summer, having had a talk with Kevin's mother and discovering what had happened in the passing years.

The statement was concluded with Max requesting the tribunal to be kind to Kevin and for him to be the guidance Kevin's defender was pleading for, along with an offer to Kevin himself to help repair his physical form. The tribunal then took a brief recess to decide Kevin's fate. Upon their return, it was ordered that Kevin serve a sentence of four years and six months in the Null Void, during which he would be allowed separate monthly visits from his mother and from Max.

From there, Kevin was sent into the Null Void in energized chains to the prison where he would endure nearly five tough, gruelling years amongst a crowd of convicts, with only his permitted visits being a bright spot in his life.

Kevin recalled the first time Max visited him. It was a memory that he looked back on before with fondness, as that visit in particular led to a lot of other better visits, but right now he relived it with nothing more than a hollow feeling.

He and Max were given a bare room to talk in and a table to sit at. Kevin asked about his father, never having heard much about what kind of man he was. He sat enraptured and inspired, listening as Max regaled him with stories of his father's bravery and dedication, the times that he was often reckless, and how he always thought that his own sense of humour was fun and witty while Max's was very dull. It was there that Kevin began to realise the legacy his father had left him and how poorly he was measuring up to it, and from that sprang the buds of his dream of becoming a Plumber after he had served his time.

Towards the end of the session, Kevin chose to touch upon the question he had been meaning to ask since his trial.

"How are you going to get me back to normal?"

Max smiled at him. "Not me," he answered, turning to call at the door. "Honey, come on in."

Kevin's ear perked up at the mention of the word, honey. Unless Max had brought his wife, there was only one person he knew that word could refer to. Sure enough, as he gazed at the opening door, his mutated eyes feel on a familiar young girl with green eyes and a red hair, a girl that spent the next three years fixing and curing him. A girl whom he eventually developed a crush on, fell in love with, and whom he was with in a long-term romantic relationship.

Gwen Tennyson.

The ensuing line of years of memories was broken as Kevin's facial nerves were triggered to the presence of the solitary tear sliding down his face. Wiping it away with one hand, he returned his focus to the search.

"See anything, Kai?" he asked his passenger.

"Not yet. Maybe we should check in with Max and the others."

"Yeah," Kevin replied, pressing in the all-signal code on his communications console. "To all search teams in the Bellwood sector, this is Kevin Levin. Any sign of the target?"

 **:*:**

For Hope's sake, Ben kept his full reaction to being told about Gwen's escape reined in, displaying his distress briefly by closing his eyes and gritting his teeth before exhaling and resume the state of calm he had been keeping. Sandra relaxed, noting with a sense of pride how mature her son was acting as she left him and Hope to keep watch by her husband's side.

Ben turned to Hope, reopening his eyes to look at her. So far she had not made a single move since Hex had cast all the healing spells, which was starting to worry him. He thought about her wounds again, asking how she could have gotten so many. To overpower someone as powerful as Hope, he figured who or whatever attacked her had to be either very powerful in their own right, or they were cowards who caught her by surprise in some kind of ambush. Having been in both situations before, Ben found it easy to imagine Hope at the centre of either scenario. He pictured her putting up a terrific fight against her opponent, bravely struggling as she was starting to be overwhelmed and falling when her wounds were taking their serious toll on her.

Then, unbidden, a third scenario came to mind. Hope was returning from Ledgerdomain with the intention of coming to see him, only for someone they both knew to strike her from behind with a blast of mana energy. Hope would turn to face Gwen; Gwen launched another assault. Hope reacted defensively, choosing to use shielding spells to protect herself and thinking on what spell would be best to restrain Gwen without harming her. But Gwen's fighting style was changing, devolving into that of an enraged animal, her obsessive need to prove herself right taking over and pushing her to throw attack after attack in blind rage. Leading to - - -

Leading to this.

With pain, Ben drew mental images, recalling from memory all of the wounds Hope had sustained from her attack. He wondered sadly if Gwen could really have been so brutal as to have inflicted them and, if she was and did, then what would that mean now? A small, hardened part of him gave him the answer, as if it had already been considering the question long before the rest of his mind had.

He and the others had to stop her. And take her in. Or bring her down. The mere thought was enough to engulf him with guilt. Gwen, his cousin, the closest thing he had to a sister, his strongest rock of emotional support and advice throughout his years of going hero and saving the universe, was now someone he was going to have to fight.

Ben cringed, his mind letting the image of that particular battle to surface. Why, he asked himself. Why did Gwen have to act like this? She had to know, to see, that her actions were maligning her into being labelled as an enemy. But then, he reconsidered, she was not able to see the bond between him and Hope, or else had seen it and instead continued to deny it over some misplaced need to protect from any danger that Hope might have presented to him. Again as he had when he revealed his and Hope's relationship to Gwen, he questioned if there was any other he could have proved to his cousin that the love he and Hope shared was real and if he had handled the whole thing wrong.

"It's not your fault."

Ben blinked. Just from the sound of her voice he knew that the person who had spoken to him was Hope, but he was almost sure he had heard her from outside of his head rather than from within. He glanced down at her. Hope began to stir, her cradled head rolling slightly.

"It wasn't Gwen who attacked me," she spoke clearly, her body still in the process of waking.

"Hex," Ben called to the sorceror. Hex's eyes snapped open and he rose from the armchair, stepping over to Ben and Hope. Carl and Sandra also turned away from their posts, directing their eyes to their son and his girlfriend, waiting for the verdict of Hope's recovery.

Finally, Hope's eyelids lifted upward, revealing a pair of dazed violet eyes before the lids blinked over her eyes again to wash the dizziness away. Hope moaned, pulling herself up into a sitting position and rubbed at her eyes. Ben moved his hands to support her, cupping her at the back and side of her waist.

Hope lowered her arms in recognition of his touch and she glanced at him. Seeing the devotion in his eyes, she smiled and grasped his arms with equal feeling.

"You were here for me."

"Of course," Ben shrugged nonchalantly. "Why wouldn't I?"

Hope saw that he meant it as a rhetorical question, but she chose to answer him anyway. Widening her smile in a sly enigmatic manner, she loosened her grip and slid her hands up along his arms to clasp the tops of his shoulders and leaned in closer, never taking her eyes away from his.

"I love you too," she whispered, plying a light kiss to his lips.

"That much is obvious," Hex interrupted sternly, causing the two to start and separate. "Given that you came to his domicile instead of coming to mine when you were in danger, in spite of common logic that I would have treated your wounds sooner had you done the latter."

Hope frowned guiltily. "I did mean to come to you first, Uncle Hex. But as I was preparing the portal, I thought - -

"You thought if you were beyond my help, that your wounds were fatal, you wanted to spend your last living moments with Ben."

"Yes," Hope nodded, feeling Ben's hands freeze after she spoke her answer. Sensing that it was because the conversation had given him another dark thought like the ones she had sensed him thinking just before her waking, she stroked her thumbs in circles down and up his shoulders to calm him.

Hex resumed speaking to her. "You mentioned to Ben before you woke completely that it was not Gwen who attacked you. If not her, then who, or has the absence of the Alpha Rune from around your neck already revealed that to me?"

Hop reactively flinched in response to the dangerous flash in her uncle's eyes as he questioned her. She put her hand to her collarbone where the necklace of the Alpha Rune was supposed to hang from. Her fingers touched bare skin. Sighing despondently, Hope confessed.

"It was Adwaita. He and his forces surrounded the castle and -

Hex cut her off, growling in frustration as he stepped over to the wall.

"Adwaita!" Ben exclaimed. "He's back? Again?"

"Yes, again," Hex scowled. "Waging war after war until he has control of Ledgerdomain once more, which he now seems to have accomplished and nearly killed Hope for it."

Ben turned his face towards Hope, his eyes and mouth agape with horror. "Why didn't you tell me about this? I could have helped."

Remorseful tears beginning to slide from her eyes, Hope circled her arms around him completely. "I know you would've, Ben. That's what worried me. The fighting was that bad I couldn't ask you. I was afraid that if I ever involved you or your friends, you'd never come out of it alive. Losing you would… would…

She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. In that moment, Ben understood. Just now, in the past couple of hours, he had been holding her with her close to death. He had almost crumbled into a wreck from the second she had collapsed into his arms, covered in her wounds, and listened to everything Hex said to him during the healing ritual with all the dedication he had in order to keep the worst from happening, praying that it would never happen. Nevertheless, Ben spoke his own feelings.

"And how do you think I would feel if you had died there? That I'd never see you again? That you kept the truth of what you were going through from me? Can't you see that losing _you_ would destroy _me_?"

Hope gazed back at him strangely, as if she was using her magic to probe the intensity of the emotions behind his words and the hurt expression on his face. She believed when she had departed for Ledgerdomain that he would have been devastated had she perished in battle, but what she saw now unpredictably stunned her to the core. Once again, Ben surprised her, as he had since she had begun falling for him. Throughout the development of their relationship, her perception of Ben had changed totally; all these years, Hope had thought him to be a crude, disgusting, insensitive boy who cared only about the thrill of going hero and his alien alter egos getting him all the glory in the battles he, his family, and his friends fought in.

It was the time he, Gwen and Kevin helped her to liberate Ledgerdomain that Hope began to see a different side to Ben. She saw the care he displayed for his cousin and his best friend and how he had openly suspected she would turn on the three of them, indicating to her that he not only did care for the safety of others and was cautious instead of being reckless or naïve, but that he also had a deeply hidden sense of maturity. It was those signs that made her watch out for him the time she tried to bring her father back from the grave, an event that she knew afterward caused Ben to drop whatever trust he had for her entirely. Even after Gwen gave her another chance in those days, Ben had refused to, which meant by the time Adwaita had abducted Hex earlier in the year, and after finding out that Gwen had lost faith in her ever being good, when she had gone to Ben next for help, Hope realised that to get him to trust her, she had to put her trust in him.

All through the mission to rescue Hex, Hope opened up to Ben, going on to tell him everything she had lost and struggled with in her life. After so many trying conversations, Ben finally let his guard down, telling her how he was finding being a hero to be less fun than it used to be when he was ten. That now, as a globally and sometimes galactically recognised hero, he constantly felt he had to follow the expectations people held of him where he had to save the day and battle monsters and liens every time that even so much as a minimal threat popped up without ever thinking that he could want some time to relax and have a personal life, and how all of that performed a major contribution to the breakdown of his relationship with Julie.

Hope did not know precisely when her feelings towards Ben changed to romantic, but it was obvious it had to have been during one of those talks. For all he spoke about hating to endure the costs of being a hero, Ben leapt right back into being one, tackling Adwaita's forces without thinking. But for Hope, the lesson was learned. Ben Tennyson was initially who he appeared to be, as she would discover again when they later began dating, but he was also a thinking, feeling human being who wanted someone to understand all the different aspects to him. An understanding which she gradually came to hold, knowing she was in need of similar personal attention from dealing with the stress of ruling an entire dimension. An understanding that brought her and Ben together as girlfriend and boyfriend, where she had fallen in love with him so much that she could not bear him being harmed on her behalf. And now, that same understanding had deepened again, leading her to a final revelation.

Ben wanted to be there for her, love her, help her, risk his life for her, no matter what. He was in love with her too.

Tears began to emerge in Hope's eyes. She tried to put all she was feeling into words but nothing she was thinking of saying could amount to the powerful surging of her emotions. She stared into Ben's eyes; her attentive gaze caught that her traumatic reaction had taken him aback, making him appear as if he was going to apologise for the way he had spoken to her.

No, she thought decisively. Ben was right. She had been so afraid of losing him that she had failed to see how deep his devastation would truly be if she ever lost her life without him near. She had failed to count his own feelings into the matter. Were she any other girl or Ben any other guy, a moment like that would have made her doubt whether their relationship would have any standing in the future. But the thing there was she wasn't any other girl and she did not want to lose Ben in any way.

And she was not going to let him apologise for showing her how much she meant to him.

"I'm sorry. I should have realised."

Ben flinched, startled again by her emotional apology. Still believing that he spoke to her too harshly, he moved his arms forward and pulled Hope into a hug as her tears fell from her eyes. Resting his chin on her head, Ben answered, "It's okay. Let's just promise to avoid keeping secrets like that from each other."

Hope nodded against his chest, smothering the tearwater on his shirt and jacket.

"Okay, promise."

Silence fell between the two. They held each other lovingly, contented with the embrace they were sharing. Interpreting their conversation was at an end, Hex deigned to speak to his niece, intending to ask her more questions about Adwaita's takeover. He paused, taking a second look at the young couple, and then drew back from them. Perhaps it was best to bring the incident up at a later time.

 **:*:**

The quiet of the Tennyson living room was eventually broken by Hope. While remaining in Ben's arms for what appeared to her was nice, comforting, long length of time, a single thought was occurring in her mind. During her period of unconsciousness, she had sensed turmoil from Ben, turmoil that he clearly had to keep hidden due to the requirements of the healing ritual. When she started to reawaken and re-established the connection to her powers, Hope sifted through his emotions to find the source of the turmoil.

The first things she encountered were the stress he had in seeing her lingering between life and death and his struggle to keep the rushing whirlpool that were his emotions in check. Knowing that was all tied to the healing spells her uncle used to restore her to health, Hope gradually moved past those to go deeper. She finally came to what she had been seeking; Ben's wild and paranoid suspicions. Hope froze in surprise as it was revealed to her that Ben did not once suspect Adwaita as the one who had wounded her. This puzzled her immensely. Ben knew the tyrannical sorceror was her most recurrent nemesis; to Hope, it was like her not ever suspecting that Vilgax could be the cause of any injuries Ben would suffer from. Her confusion led her again to curiosity, asking herself why Ben did not suspect Adwaita as his turmoil was making it clear that there was someone he did suspect.

She was therefore shocked upon learning who that someone was.

Now that she had recovered, lifting her head up to face Ben, Hope asked him the inevitable question. Why did he and the others think that it was Gwen who attacked her? When Ben failed to respond verbally and looked away instead, she sought the answer from his parents. Carl, similar to Ben, took to staring out the window, his grip tightening around the blaster rifle he had in his hands. Sandra appeared to follow in their aversion, but that was turned into a momentary reaction as she redirected her eyes from facing the floor back to Hope. With a small sigh, Sandra explained everything.

Once upon a time, Hope would have treated all she was told with openly expressive glee in that her former rival had not been the perfect little magic girl hero Gwen always made herself out to be, but now all she could feel was shock and horror toward the fact that Gwen had fallen so far in the time she had been away in Ledgerdomain. She wasn't sure how she was able to process the facts and understand them as truth; Hope had known Gwen to act irrationally and bluntly some of the time, but the redheaded girl always had one of the strongest forms of common sense of logic she had ever tangled with.

And yet there were all these acts Gwen had pulled. Calling in two of Ben's old flames to seduce him. Her frustrated responses when she, for whatever reason, could not see the truth. The taking of Julie, Julie's father and Kevin prisoner. Possessing Kai into throwing herself at Ben. Failing to contemplate the truth again, even after all her machination had fallen apart when Ben resisted and broke the spell she had placed on Kai. And finally, Gwen's violent escape and promise to pursue her crusade. None of that was sounding like the Gwen Tennyson she knew at all; it certainly wasn't the Gwen Ben knew either, judging by how broken he was looking as Sandra recounted the events for Hope's ears.

Hope stayed there on the sofa, sitting stock still next to Ben once Sandra finished speaking. Their arms circling around one another, the both of them pondered on why and how Gwen could have let herself take a massively dark downfall like that. Hope glanced around the room; she predicted it as a given fact that her and Ben were not the only ones asking themselves these questions. She found that she was right; everyone else, Sandra, Carl and her Uncle Hex all bore their characteristic inquiring stares. She regarded her uncle's reaction more specifically than the other two. Like her, Hex had just as much reason in the past to view Gwen being a nemesis to him more so than Ben, and it made her curious what his full reaction to all of it was rather than his usual, understated one where his face was framed by a mostly-impassive glare and a small frown.

Her musings were interrupted when the search parties involved in hunting for Gwen stopped by the house. Max returned in his trusty RV, looking tired and haggard. Kevin and Kai arrived not long after him, the former of the two making suggestions to the other to go back out and keep searching, with Kai retorting that he could do that by himself because she was going to get some of the rest she wanted and that Max advised they all should get. Julie and Ship came in through the door an hour later, having tiresomely investigated every inch of the forested areas outside of town.

Sandra took the hint from the arrivals that her house was becoming a sort of rendezvous point and dutifully went into the kitchen to begin arranging refreshments. By the time she was finished, with at least three platters of snack foods and a large bottle of cola with paper cups set aside, the gathering was joined by the Plumbers' Kids and, surprisingly, by Frank and Natalie who had taken up their own search for their daughter. All of them had just about as much luck as the others, coming to the house exhausted and disheartened.

All this confirmed one thing for Ben and Hope.

That despite the best efforts of the people surrounding them, Gwen had not been found.

* * *

 **Where is Gwen hiding? You'll find out in the next chapter.**


End file.
